Comelec: Over 76% of ballots for midterm polls printed
SCRUTINY. Technicians inspect a printing machine for ballots and other forms for the 2025 midterm polls at the National Printing Office in Quezon City on Tuesday (Sept. 24, 2024). South Korean contractor Miru Systems delivered two machines on Sept. 16 and 21. | PNA photo by Joan Bondoc
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has printed 53,418,068 ballots or 76.58 percent of the 69.7 million ballots needed for the elections on May 12, its chairman George Erwin Garcia said on Monday.
This output was reached as the printers from the National Printing Office (NPO) and South Korean election systems provider Miru Systems reached an output of 585,238 ballots from March 2, 7:00 p.m to March 3, 7:00 a.m.
However, it was a bit below the daily target of printing 800,000 ballots daily.
READ: Highest turnout so far: Comelec prints over 1.8M ballots in 1 day
Garcia previously said the Comelec targets finishing the ballot printing on March 10.
The Comelec tapped the NPO to help Miru comply with the April 14 deadline for ballot printing.
Ballot printing
The printing of ballots suffered repeated delays as the Comelec was compelled to comply with the Supreme Court’s (SC) temporary restraining order (TRO) directing the poll body to include in the ballots the names of erstwhile nuisance candidates whose names the Comelec omitted from the ballots.
READ: 6 million printed ballots for 2025 polls to be destroyed by Comelec
The printing of over six million ballots had begun on Jan. 6. However, the Comelec had to discard it because the name of erstwhile nuisance candidate Subair Mustapha was not included in the ballot. He secured the SC’s TRO on Jan. 14. The poll body incurred P132 million in loss due to the TRO.
The printing of ballots with the name of Mustapha was supposed to be done on Jan. 22.
READ: SC grants TRO vs cancellation of Jonas Cortes’ COC
However, on Jan. 21, the SC issued another TRO directing the Comelec to put Norman Mangusin’s name (also known as Francis Leo Marcos) in the ballot, only for him to withdraw his Senate bid, leading to the third printing delay.
The SC then summoned Mangusin over his actions which the high court said “tend to bring the SC’s processes into disrepute or disrespect.”
The Comelec resumed the printing of ballots on Jan. 27 and has been going on since.
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