MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has printed over 45 million ballots for the upcoming May 12 midterm elections, nearly a month since reprinting began at the National Printing Office (NPO) in Quezon City.

In an advisory on Tuesday, Comelec reported that 45,649,329 ballots have been printed as of the latest update, accounting for 63.32 percent of the total 72,097,420 ballots required for the elections.

To expedite the process, Comelec divided printing operations between the NPO and Miru Systems, its service provider for the upcoming polls. 

Of the printed ballots, 22,570,822 were produced by Miru Systems, while the NPO has printed 23,078,507.

The commission still needs to print 26,448,091 ballots, with Miru Systems responsible for 14,279,056 and the NPO tasked with producing 12,169,035. 

At the current pace, Comelec expects to complete the printing process by March 9 or 10.

The ballot printing resumed on January 27 following a reprinting directive, ensuring that all official ballots are ready for distribution ahead of election day.

Prior to the reprinting of ballots, the poll body destroyed at least 6 million ballots following a series of temporary restraining orders from the Supreme Court, which suspended the printing due to various election candidacy complaints.