When first in mid-February, parties opposing Open XML's ratification had speculated that enough of the then-unrevealed comments would identify fatal "contradictions" in Open XML that would scuttle its bid for fast track approval.

But according to a tally conducted by Computerworld in early March and based on ISO documents (), only six countries formally opposed Open XML's fast-tracking, with another five nations showing strong doubts to the Open XML proposal in its current form.

For a proposed standard to be approved by the ISO, no more than one-third of JTC-1, or 10 countries, can vote against it. Meanwhile, no more than one quarter of ISO's 157 members that cast their vote -- non-JTC-1 member countries may abstain -- can vote against it.

The U.S. did not submit a comment or a contradiction through its member body, the International Committee for Information Technology Standards.

The most common objection to the proposed standard has been the overlap between Open XML and ODF, which the ISO ratified last May. Several countries suggested "harmonizing" ODF with Open XML to make them more interoperable. Other commonly-cited objections include patent violations by Open XML, the lengthiness of Ecma's proposal, and specific issues related to how Open XML operates technically.