Monday, April 1, 2013

Philippine Election Ballot Printing

By Janice M. Cave

Printing of ballots for the May 13 mid-term polls is almost 98 percent complete, an official of the state-run National Printing Office said Monday.

NPO Assistant Director Raul Nagrampa said as of 12 midnight, ballots printed is at 52.1 million or 97.6 percent of the required 53.4 million ballots.

At least one million ballots are left to be printed, he added.

He said they expect to finish the printing of ballots tomorrow, April 2, or three weeks ahead of target schedule.

On Wednesday, April 3, Nagrampa said they will have a ceremonial printing of the last ballot with Commission on Elections Chairman Sixto Brillantes.

As of today, the NPO is still printing ballots for the National Capital Region.

Nagrampa added that the NPO has turned over 48.8 million ballots to the Comelec.

Earlier, the Comelec directed the NPO to complete the printing by April 25 or less than three weeks before election day. The printing of ballots started on Feb. 4.