MANILA, Philippines?After several postponements, the printing of the official ballots for the May 10 elections was finally started Monday afternoon at the National Printing Office (NPO) in Quezon City.

Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said the Commission on Election was scheduled to print 50,723,734 ballots beginning Sunday but this was again delayed because the machines had to be ?re-calibrated.?

This was because the ballots for the vote in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao was 27 inches long due to the need to provide Arabic translations. The ballots for the rest of the country are 25 inches long.

The printing had been postponed several times. It was supposed to start on Jan. 25, but it was pushed back to Jan. 30, then Jan. 31, only to be reset to Feb. 7.

According to earlier news reports, the printing was postponed to give the Comelec more time to finalize the official list of candidates, since some of them had pending motions for reconsideration and petitions for disqualification.

The original shipment date of the ballots to the municipalities is April 25, the Comelec said.

Larrazabal earlier said that the printing would be completed in 60 to 70 days.