The official ballots that are being printed at the National Printing Office (NPO) for the May 10, 2010 polls will have two sizes, an official of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said on Monday.

Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said that one set of the ballots will be for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and the other for the rest of the country.

According to Larrazabal, both sets will have the same width of 8-½ inches but different in length.

The ballots for the rest of the country will be 25 inches in length, while those for the ARMM will be two inches longer, he said.

The Comelec official explained that the ARMM ballots will be longer since they will also carry Arabic translation, aside from the usual names of the candidates.

Larrazabal said that the ballots for the ARMM will be the first to be printed.

“For being longer, and because it has Arabic translation, that is why we decided to print it first,” he added.

Aside from having a longer ballot, the previous proposal to hold early voting in the ARMM is also one reason why the poll body has chosen to print the ARMM ballots ahead of those for used in the other parts of the country.

After being postponed twice, the printing of the ballots started Sunday at the National Printing Office (NPO) in Quezon City.

The Comelec will be printing a total of 50,723,734 ballots, the same number of registered voters in the country.

In addition, it will print 1,631 unique ballot faces that correspond to the number of municipalities and cities nationwide since the names of the national and local candidates will be pre-printed. (PNA)
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