MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said it expects to finish ballot printing ahead of its April 25 target, as it has printed around 60% of ballots needed for the May 13 elections.

In a statement, Comelec Spokesman James Jimenez said that “at the current rate, ballot printing may be completed before Holy Week begins.” Holy Week begins on Palm Sunday, April 14.

The Comelec printing committee said 38,347,754 million ballots have been printed as of Tuesday, March 19. The poll body said this “represents 60.24% of the 63,662,481” ballots that need to be printed.

According to the Comelec, the remaining ballots to be printed are for the Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, and the National Capital Region.

The poll body said that of the ballots that need to be printed, more than 1.1 million will be used for the final testing and sealing of vote-counting machines, while the rest will be demonstration ballots for educational purposes. 

Only one ballot is printed for each of the 61,843,750 registered voters for the May 13 elections.

For the 2016 elections, the Comelec had finished printing ballots by April 9, 2016, two weeks before the target date of April 25, 2016. 

For the 2013 elections, the poll body had finished printing ballots by April 3, 2013, or 3 weeks before the target date of April 25, 2013. – Rappler.com