The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Monday said it will defer the vote for the representative of the first district of Bulacan after the Supreme Court nullified the creation of a separate legislative district for Malolos City.

Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said that SC ruling nullifying the creation of a separate legislative district for Malolos City would alter preparations for the congressional elections in the first district of Bulacan.

Larrazabal explained that Malolos City was part of the first legislative district of Bulacan until Congress passed a law making Malolos a separate district.

“But the SC said that’s not allowed, so Malolos City went back to the first district,” he said.

“So at this point in time it will be difficult to conduct elections for congressman for the first district because you have people running for the first district, and for Malolos City for congressman. So you have to merge that,” he said.

Comelec will schedule a special election for representative in the first district of Bulacan, Larrazabal said.

However, the district will still hold voting for national and other local positions on May 10, he said.

“They can still vote but the votes for congressman for the first district will be blank,” he said.

Meanwhile, the poll official revealed that the plan to conduct a simulation of voting, transmission and counting is being finalized.

“It’s being finalized now. In fact, we met with the information technology (IT) community, the management association of the Philippines, and the Makati Business Club (MBC) and this is one of the things that we discussed and they will observe the simulation,” Larrazabal said.

The main objective of the activity, he said, is to see if they can process 1,000 voters within 11 hours.

“So that’s final already. We are just working the details, where it will be conducted and how it will be conducted,” said Larrazabal.