Comelec Reports Over 47% of Midterm Election Ballots Printed

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced that the printing of 73 million ballots for the upcoming May 12 midterm elections has reached 47.48%, with a total of 34,235,042 ballots already produced. Comelec chairperson George Garcia expressed optimism about reaching the 50% mark in the coming days. The printing is being conducted at the National Printing Office (NPO), with service provider Miru Systems contributing 17,254,221 ballots and the NPO itself producing 16,980,821 ballots. An additional 37,862,378 ballots are yet to be printed, with Miru tasked to print 19,595,657 and the NPO responsible for 18,266,721 more. Garcia anticipates the completion of the ballot printing by early March, specifically targeting March 9 or 10. Following the completion of printing, the focus will shift to the manual and machine verification of the ballots, a process that will continue until April 14. The printing process, which resumed in late January, had been temporarily halted due to Supreme Court orders related to nuisance candidates.