More than half of all 50.7 M ballots printed, Comelec says

More than half of all ballots for the Philippines’ nationwide automated polls have been produced a month before the deadline after a fifth printing press arrived ahead of schedule, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said. Some 26.178 million ballots of the total 50.7 million have been printed, Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larazabal said in a press briefing on Monday. "As of this morning, 26,178,510 officials ballots [have been printed]. We've crossed the 50-percent mark already," he said, adding that the arrival of a fifth printing press helped produce more ballots. The equipment, now at the National Printing Office, has been in operation since Saturday. With four printing presses, the NPO can only print 700,000 ballots per day. Once the fifth machine becomes fully operational, Larrazabal said, the five printers are expected print at least 900,000 ballots daily. Earlier, the Comelec said that it would rent an additional printing press to expedite the printing of official ballots to meet its April 25 deadline. Larrazabal expressed confidence that the poll body would meet its target deadline since the fifth printer arrived ahead of schedule. "We will have 50 million ballots on elections day as scheduled," the commissioner said, adding that they are still looking for ways to speed up the ballot production. Meanwhile, the Comelec is contemplating on either temporarily halting or slowing down on the ballot printing on Good Friday, which falls on April 2. Normal operations will resume on Saturday, Larrazabal said. - GMANews.TV