Lawmakers to inspect ballot printing, status of poll machines

Members of the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on Automated Elections (JCOC-AE) are set to inspect the status of the ballot printing and delivery of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines to ensure that the preparations for the May polls are in order. In an interview with reporters, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said the poll body and the JCOC-AE will inspect the printing of the ballots at the National Printing Office (NPO) in Quezon City early Thursday and the poll machine supplier Smartmatic-TIM's warehouse in Cabuyao Laguna later in the afternoon. "We will give an update to the members of the JCOC in the status of the printing and to inspect the security and to give an update to the JCOC on the development and progress of the activities for the elections," Larrazabal said. As of January 15, around 50,723,734 voters were registered. But the Comelec earlier said that it would only print ballots based on the number of voters who had registered from December 2008 to Oct. 31, 2009. As of December 10, 2009 count, the number was around 49 million. On December 15, the Supreme Court extended the voter registration for the 2010 elections to January 9 after it nullified a Comelec resolution that limited the said registration to October 31, 2009. [See: Additional voters for 2010 to be like 'chance passengers'] The poll body had also earlier said that each of the four printers at the NPO are capable of printing about 200,000 ballots a day. Comelec chairman Jose Melo, however, said on Wednesday that the printers have since been able to produce only about 700,000 ballots a day. Melo thus said that they will be renting one more printer to ease the ballot printing. Records posted at the NPO show that as of January 25, a total of 6,037,038 official ballots have been printed for the May 2010 elections. On the other hand, Smartmatic-TIM said that it had already finished the manufacturing of all the PCOS units needed for the elections. Of the 82,200 PCOS machines that it has committed to provide the poll body, 64,620 are already in their warehouse in Cabuyao, Laguna; 4,000 are just awaiting release from the Bureau of Customs; and 13,580 are currently en route to the country, Smartmatic spokesman Gene Gregorio said. The poll body said it will impose the P7.5-million fine for every single day the poll machine supplier misses the February 28 deadline. - Kim Tan/RSJ/LBG, GMANews.TV