Only 2-week period to distribute ballots to precincts

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) - A Commission on Elections (Comelec) official said Thursday that it is ready to ship out 50 million official ballots beginning April 25.

Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said that as of Thursday, at least 42 million ballots have been printed by the National Printing Office (NPO).

The poll body expects the NPO to finish printing all 50 million ballots in on or before April 25. This leaves a 2-week period to distribute the ballots to all precincts nationwide. 

The NPO has increased its rate of printing of ballots from 800,000 ballots a day to around 1 million a day, he added.

Larrazabal said the printed ballots, currently stored at the NPO, will be sent directly to municipal and city treasurers' offices, instead of the usual practice of taking them first to provincial offices.

Meanwhile, Larrazabal said that the printing of "contingency" paper requirements in case of manual elections and the Voter Information Sheets (VIS) have already started.

The paper forms, including election returns, certificates of canvass, and statement of votes per precinct, are currently being printed by an NPO-accredited printing press.

These forms will be used should some parts of the country experience failure of automation and resort to manual counting.

The supplies are good for 30% of the polling precincts all over the country.

If they are not used--which the Comelec is hoping for--the materials can still be used for the barangay elections, which will remain manual, Larrazabal said.

The VIS, meanwhile, are being printed in local printers per region.

Larrazabal said they expect the VIS to be mailed and delivered personally to voters before May 10.

The VIS contain information on the voter's precinct and a sample ballot. -- report from Ryan Chua, ABS-CBN News