The Commission on Elections (Comelec) revealed Monday that it has already printed half of the needed 50 million ballots for the May 10 elections, adding that it has also procured another printing machine in order to further expedite the process.

As such, retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Comelec chairman Jose Melo said that they are confident that everything will fall under their projected schedules, among them is that all the ballots would be printed by April 25.

"We have hit ½ of the 50 million we need. And so we have around more than a month to go and we brought in an extra printer. We are printing right now over 900,000 a day," said Melo, in an interview after gracing flag-raising ceremony at Camp Crame in Quezon City yesterday.

"We believe that we can finish it by the 25th of April but if needed, we can go beyond 25 of April and have extra days of printing," he added.

While he admitted that they faced huge problems to comply with the poll automation law, Melo said that everything are now running smoothly due to the cooperation of its partners in the May 10 elections such as the police and military.

Both the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Melo said, are doing a good job in securing areas where election violence wou ld likely to occur.

Melo said that the Smartmatic for its part did its best to ensure that all the the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines are delivered on time.