Comelec: 73% of ballots for May polls already printed

Printing of AES ballots for the May 9, 2022 National and Local Elections started at approximately 11:27 A.M on 23 January 2022, at the National Printing Office (NPO). COMELEC/Facebook

MANILA, Philippines — Seventy-three percent or 49 million out of over 67 million ballots for the May 9 elections have so far been printed, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said Tuesday.

“Of the 13 regions including BARMM (Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim) and CAR (Cordillera Administrative Region), we already printed 73.7 percent. Almost all are already 100 percent printed except for NCR which we started today and we have remaining ballots for Region 3, which is only 65 percent printed,” Comelec Commissioner Marlon Casquejo told reporters during a walkthrough at the National Printing Office where the ballots are being printed.

Casquejo said the printed ballots still need to pass through verification before deployment.

He added that some 5.2 million ballots were defective as these were found with smudges and had been miscut.

These defective ballots, said Casquejo, will be shredded and will not be deployed to polling precincts.

The Comelec conducted a walkthrough at NPO with members of the media and other stakeholders after some groups and lawmakers sounded the alarm over the supposed lack of transparency in the printing of ballots and the configuration of Secure Digital cards that will be used in the May elections.

Comelec chairperson Saidamen Pangarungan said the agency is committed to being more transparent in its preparations for the upcoming polls, and is taking opportunities to open these preparations to the public without compromising the security of the ballots.

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/MUF