Comelec targets finishing ballot printing by March 10

SCRUTINY. Technicians inspect a printing machine for ballots and other forms for the 2025 midterm polls at the National Printing Office in Quezon City in this file photo taken on Sept. 24, 2024. (PNA / JOAN BONDOC)

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) targets finishing the printing of ballots by March 10, its chairman George Erwin Garcia said on Thursday.

Garcia made the commitment as he noted that the Comelec is already done printing around 50 million or about 70 percent, of the more than 72 million ballots (72,097,420) for the midterm polls.

“More or less, if ever, by March 9 or 10, the printing of ballots will be done,” Garcia said in a DWPM interview.

The Comelec tapped the National Printing Office to help South Korean election systems provider Miru comply with the April 14 deadline for ballot printing.

Printing of ballots suffered repeated delays as the Comelec was compelled to comply with the temporary restraining order (TRO) of the Supreme Court (SC) on nuisance candidates whose names the poll body omitted from the ballots.

The printing of over six million ballots had begun on January 6.

But the Comelec had to discard the printed materials, incurring P132 million in losses as a result.

The reason for the move is that the ballots did not contain the names of erstwhile nuisance candidate Subair Mustapha, who secured the SC TRO on January 14.

The printing of ballots including the name of Mustapha was supposed to be done on January 22.

But on January 21, the SC issued another TRO which ordered the Comelec to put another candidate, Norman Mangusin’s name (also known as Francis Leo Marcos) on the ballot.

And then, Mangusin withdrew his Senate bid, leading to the third printing delay.

The SC afterwards summoned Mangusin over his actions, which the high court said “tend to bring the SC’s processes into disrepute or disrespect.”

READ: Comelec wants nuisance ruling vs bets like Francis Leo Marcos permanent

The Comelec resumed the printing of ballots on January 27 and this operation has been going on since then.