Comelec assures all ballots to be printed before May polls

While admitting that the ballot printing has had some delays, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Thursday assured the public that it will be able to print the more than 50 million ballots needed for the national polls that are just two months away. Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said that they are able to generate about 750,000 ballots in 24 hours with four printers. Records posted at the National Printing Office indicate that as of March 11, a total of 13,783,011 ballots have been printed for the May polls. Of these, 10,139,553 ballots have been delivered to the reception committee. "With those numbers, we will be able to print out all the ballots in time for the May 10, 2010 elections," said the commissioner. The poll body needs to print a total of 50,723,734 ballots for the automated elections. Larrazabal issued the statement after Esmeralda Ladra, head of the Comelec printing committee, suggested through a memo that the poll body prepare a contingency plan should they fail to meet the output of ballots required by the elections. Earlier, Comelec chairman Jose Melo also said that the poll body was failing to meet its required output of 800,000 ballots per day, thus the need for the fifth printer. Larrazabal said that they will be adding another Kodak printer from China, which should be operational by April 5. "Before that memo was issued, there's already a plan to bring in additional printers. And in fact the printer is being shipped to the country as we speak," he said. Despite the delays caused by several "roadblocks" laid out by their critics, the commissioner said that they will definitely push through with poll automation. "We are trying our best and we will work for a 100-percent successful and credible elections. We're going for 100-percent automated elections," said Larrazabal. —JV, GMANews.TV