Comelec: 45% of ballots for May polls printed

MANILA, Philippines – Nearly half of the total number of official ballots needed for the May 13, 2019 midterm elections have already been printed by the National Printing Office (NPO), Commission on Elections spokesperson James Jimenez said on Wednesday.

“We’re halfway done with the printing of ballots,” he told reporters.

Jimenez shared that 45.38 percent or 28,887,821 of the total number of needed ballots for the midterm elections have already been printed by the NPO.

More than 61 million ballots will be used in the national and local elections while 1.8 million will be allotted for overseas voting.

According to the Comelec, there are more than 60 million registered voters for the upcoming elections.

Jimenez earlier said that the NPO has been printing an average of one million ballots per day and that it might finish the ballot printing process ahead of schedule.

READ: NPO boosts ballot printing output with new equipment
 

According to Jimenez, this gives the commission an ample time to review and inspect  the ballots.

“It is very important that these ballots are getting printed very quickly. It is important because it is allowing us to project that we will finish printing about 10 days early,” Jimenez said.

“Because we’re going to finish early, this gives us more time to make sure na walang errors yung mga balota natin, and we have more time to check and reprint if necessary,” he added. / gsg