Ballot printing to be finished ahead of deadline – Comelec
ALL ballots to be used for the Philippines’ first nationwide automated polls will be printed within the week, days before its April 25 deadline, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said.
“Printing of ballots” will be finished “within the week,” Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said at a press briefing on Monday.
This was confirmed by Cesar Flores, president of the Asian office of Smartmatic, the company contracted by the Comelec to print ballots and supply poll machines.
Smartmatic will be able to finish ballot printing by April 23 or 24 because it was able to meet its target of printing a million ballots a day in the past few weeks.
As of Monday, 46.860 million of the more than 50 million ballots to be used in the May polls have already been printed, Larrazabal said.
Earlier, the Comelec brought a fifth Kodak printer to the National Printing Office in Quezon City — where the ballots are being printed — to speed up the process.
The Comelec plans to invite the media and the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on Poll Automation on the day when the last ballot rolls out of the printer, Larrazabal added. (PIA-Bohol)
