Comelec ‘partially terminates’ contract with election service provider

Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia during the press briefing at the poll body’s central office in Intramuros Manila, on September 28, 2024. INQUIRER.net / NOY MORCOSO

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has “partially terminated” its contract with South Korean election service provider Miru Systems Co. Ltd. in a bid to fast-track the printing of ballots for May 2025 polls, which saw repeated delays.

Comelec Chair George Erwin Garcia explained that this is necessary to make sure that ballot printing would be completed on or before its April 14 deadline.

Garcia said the National Printing Office (NPO) would help Miru fulfill the printing of more than 72 million ballots.

“Our contract with Miru will continue, but we have to remember that they were supposed to print the whole ballot,” Garcia said in a press conference before the resumption of ballot printing at NPO Headquarters in Quezon City.

“We need to partially terminate [the contract] so that they will only print what’s assigned to them based on the Comelec resolution,” he explained in Filipino.

The Comelec’s printing committee said Miru’s HP Printer is expected to print 36,244,762 ballots, while NPO’s Canon Printer should churn out the remaining 35,881,871 ballots.

“What we did is divide [the task of printing the ballots] to make it faster,” Garcia explained.

The printers of both Miru and NPO are seen to produce 1.5 million ballots daily.

The printing process began on Jan. 6 but has since been delayed thrice due to the Supreme Court’s temporary restraining orders which compeled the poll body to add the names of senatorial aspirants it previously declared as nuisance candidates.

READ: Comelec resumes printing of ballots after repeated delays