Over 53 million ballots that will be used in the May 12 midterm elections have already been printed, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said on Monday.

Based on data provided by Comelec Chairperson George Garcia, the running total of ballots that have been printed is 53,418,068 as of 7 a.m. of March 3.

Of the number, 26,405,051 were produced by printers provided by South Korean election systems provider Miru Systems Inc., while 27,013,017 were printed by the National Printing Office (NPO).

The Comelec targets to print over 69 million ballots for the May national and local elections.

Garcia earlier said they expect to complete the printing of the ballots by the second or third week of March if “the performance of the [printing] machines remains.”

The Comelec resumed the printing process in late January, weeks after it was suspended following the Supreme Court’s issuance of temporary restraining orders against the disqualification of some aspirants.

Meanwhile, Garcia reported on Monday that 12.8 million ballots have undergone verification process.

The Comelec is using the Amoranto Sports Complex in Quezon City as venue for the verification of ballots that have been printed.

The facility will house some 250 automated counting machines (ACMs) and an additional 500 verifiers for the machine and manual verification processes. (PNA)