Manila, March 14 -- The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is expecting to finish the printing of 69 million official ballots for the May 12 midterm polls this week.

Comelec Chairperson George Garcia, in an interview Thursday, said they only need to print 3 million more ballots, which is expected to be completed by "Friday night or Saturday morning."

Garcia said that after completing the printing process, they would verify the printed ballots.

"We have verified about half of the number of ballots printed. The verification will still run until April," Garcia said.

The National Printing Office (NPO) and Comelec's service provider, Miru Systems are printing the official ballots.

On Jan. 27, the poll body restarted the ballot printing at ...