Party-list reps push for parallel manual count
By Leila B. Salaverria
Some lawmakers are still pushing for the conduct of a parallel manual count alongside the automated ballot count.
Some lawmakers are still pushing for the conduct of a parallel manual count alongside the automated ballot count.
Lawmakers are hopeful that lawyer Al Parreño, who has an activist background, will bolster the system of check and balance in the Commission on Elections.
There are still ways for the Commission on Elections to purge sham partylist groups from the ballot, despite the recent Supreme Court ruling that political parties and groups not representing the marginalized and underrepresented can join the partylist voting, according to Bayan Muna Representative Neri Colmenares.
Under the new guidelines issued by the Supreme Court, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Friday said most of the 54 previously disqualified party-list groups may be allowed to run again in the May 13 polls.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) served subpoenas Monday to three partylist groups found to have violated rules on election posters.
Thirteen new applicants who were “mistakenly” included in the poll body’s first ever raffle for party-list slots were formally excluded in the list Monday.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has re-set its scheduled raffle for the placement of party-list groups in the May 2013 elections ballots to January 4.
Commission on Elections Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said Tuesday that they have no intention to scare party-list groups when he made a recent announcement saying that the final list of groups qualified for the midterm elections will be finished with more than 100 groups delisted.
Amid brewing tension among party-list groups, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Tuesday said the anxious wait to find out their fate in the 2013 election would soon be over.
Election watchdog Kontra Daya on Tuesday supported the Commission on Elections’ decision to disqualify two party-list groups representing electricity consumers.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Monday disqualified two more party-list groups to run in the 2013 polls.
Groups representing habal-habal (extended-capacity tricycle) operators and drivers, former drug addicts, peace advocates and banana farmers were among the first to fall as the Commission on Elections (Comelec) reviewed the eligibility of organizations seeking accreditation to run in next year’s party-list elections.
