Ballot Missing Names? Tampered? Return It, Says PH Embassy in New Zealand

The Philippine Embassy in New Zealand on Sunday urged Filipino voters there to return ballots with missing entries after a photo of an alleged ballot without the name of Vice President Leni Robredo circulated on social media.

The ballot where Robredo's name and number was missing was supposedly sent by mail, based on the social posts.

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"Anyone who claims that they have received a ballot with an erasure/non-appearance of any of the entries is requested to return the entire ballot package to the Embassy so that we can verify the claim. The Embassy is coordinating with Comelec accordingly," the Embassy said in a statement.

"The Philippine Embassy in Wellington is committed to upholding the integrity of the national elections as we stand by our oath as career civil servants to uphold the values of patriotism, integrity, professionalism, excellence and service," it added.

Comelec Commissioner George Erwin Garcia said the poll body only used one template to print all the ballots for Filipino voters in New Zealand.

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"So kung may walang candidate, hindi lang isa ang lalabas [but] at least 1,000 ballots for a batch of ballot ID number," he added.

The Comelec will discuss their plan of action over the incident on Tuesday, Garcia said.