MANILA – The printing of 73 million official ballots for the May 12, 2025 National and Local Elections (NLE) and Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) Parliamentary Elections (BPE) officially started on Monday at the National Printing Office (NPO) in Quezon City.
Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairperson George Garcia said of the 73 million ballots to be printed, over 68 million will be for the NLE and the rest for the Bangsamoro Parliamentary polls, overseas voting and local absentee voting.
“Today, the printing of 73 million ballots will begin. 68,421,000 are in NLE, 2.3 million are in BPE, almost 12,000 overseas voting (OV), and 100,000 local absentee voting and 1 million test ballots,” he said in a press conference after the printing kickoff ceremony.
Garcia said the first batch of ballots to be printed are for OV, local absentee, test ballots and BPE “then the last is NCR (National Capital Region) which is nearest.”
“It’s always been like that even in the deployment of equipment, the nearest areas come last while the farthest places are the priority or the ones to have their deliveries first,” Garcia said.
He said all the ballots are precinct-specific, expressing confidence in completing the ballot printing within 77 days.
“In our long history, when it comes to ballot printing, there has been no instance of us not being able to meet the deadline,” Garcia said.
Meanwhile, service provider Miru Systems said the two HP PageWide Advantage 2200 machines are capable of printing 950,000 ballots per day.
Each machine is worth PHP350 million pesos and includes an automated in-line system that spans 22 meters. The rolls of paper fed into the machine come out already cut and stacked for each precinct, making the verification process for ballots much easier compared to previous elections.
To be printed on the ballot are some 44,000 candidates for at least 18,121 positions from senatorial to municipal/city councilors throughout the country.
“The names for national and local candidates are in alphabetical order,” Garcia said. (PNA)