With the stinging reversal it suffered before the Supreme Court on voters’ registration deadline, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) was cautioned Tuesday on its plan to print 50 million official ballots for the May 10, 2010 polls starting on January 25 even without the final number of new registrants.

“We can’t wait for the list of these new registrants. We will have to proceed,” Comelec Chairman Jose A. R. Melo was quoted as saying obviously referring to new voters who would have registered on December 21, 22, 23, 28, and 29 pursuant to the December 15, 2009 unanimous decision of the High Tribunal that extended the registration period to January 9, 2010 and nullified the October 31 deadline earlier set by the poll body.

Melo expressed fears that if the Comelec will wait for the final list of voters before the printing starts, the election could already be over when official ballots for next year’s polls become available.

The Comelec was reminded by leaders of non-government organizations (NGOs) that it has to make adjustments in its preparations for the May 10, 2010 elections and wait for the complete list of registered voters because of the specific provisions of Republic Act 9369 or the Poll Automation Law on the printing of official ballots to be used in national and local polls.

The NGO leaders said Section 13 of RA 9369 that amended Sec. 11 of RA 8436 provides that, “The official ballots shall be printed and distributed to each city/municipality at the rate of one ballot for every registered voter with a provision of additional three ballots per precinct.”

“If the number of official ballots to be printed will be based on incomplete list of voters, the Comelec will be violating Sec. 13 of RA 9369 that may again prompt the Supreme Court to step in to avert the transgression of the law,” NGO leaders said.

The NGOs, led by former World Health Organization (WHO) consultant Dr. Jose R. Relacion, Dr. Cesar Cordova Jr. of the Knights of Columbus, and lawyers Francisco B. Sibayan and Yasser B. Lumbos, said had the Comelec been more careful in implementing the Voters’ Registration Act of 1996, it would have avoided setting the registration deadline last October 31, 2009 and avoided the trouble that it now finds itself in.

They said that as pointed by the High Court in a unanimous decision penned by Justice Conchita Carpio Morales, “The clear text of the Voters’ Registration Act of 1996 decrees that the voters be allowed to register daily during official hours, except during 120 days before a regular election which falls on January 9, 2010.”