Comelec: Ballot printing completion on target

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced on Monday that the National Printing Office (NPO) is printing an average of 1.1 million ballots per day in preparation for the midterm elections.

Comelec Spokesperson James Jimenez said the total number of ballots already printed is at 11,346,352 or 17.82% of the total number of ballots needed for the May 13 elections.

The NPO needs to print a total of 63,662,481 ballots for elections, which has 61,843,750 registered voters.

Jimenez said that the Comelec is “on track to hit their target of finishing the printing by April 25, 2019.”

In addition, Jimenez noted that ballots to be used for overseas voting were already printed last February 16.

Meanwhile, ballots for the provinces formerly comprising the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), Region XIII or the Caraga Administrative Region, and Region XII or Soccsksargen have also already been printed.

Ballot printing started last February 9. / gsg