The printing of 50,723,734 official ballots, equivalent to the total number of registered voters as of January 15, 2010, starts this Sunday at the National Printing Office (NPO) in Quezon City under the strict supervision of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the watchful eyes of representatives of political parties, the candidates, and deputized citizens’ arm Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV).

Earlier, there were doubts on the readiness of the Comelec to hold the country’s first automated polls on May 10, 2010, after start of printing was postponed twice.

The printing, originally scheduled to start last Jan. 23 was moved to January 31 and finally to February 7, has been targeted for completion by early April using high-end printers.

Commissioner Gregorio Y. Larrazabal said Smartmatic-TIM, which was awarded the Comelec poll automation project with its bid of P7.2 billion, had procured four high-end printers capable of printing 800,000 ballots a day. Barring unforeseen events, the printing of official ballots is expected to be over in 60 to 70 days.

Larrazabal said the official ballot will be printed on a 160 gsm (grams per square meter) paper, with each ballot measuring 11 inches wide and 24 inches long. It will contain the names of all candidates and groups accredited to participate in the party-list system of representation.

In the ballot, the voter will not write the names of his candidates but will instead shade the oval space representing his choices before the ballot is fed into thecounting machine known as Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS).

While printing the official ballots, NPO Director Sevando Hizon said the government printing agency will operate 24 hours a day, adding that the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) has assured that there will be no power interruption during that period.

Delivery of the ballots and other poll paraphernalia will start in March or two month before the May 10, 2010 polls, Larrazabal said.

He said the Comelec has been coordinating with the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to ensure that the ballots are secured while being kept at the treasurers’ office.