Comelec needs P10 billion more for ‘safe, fair, free’ 2022 elections – group
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will need an additional P10 billion to ensure that the 2022 national elections will be “safe, fair, and free” during the COVID-19 pandemic, according Participate PH, a nonpartisan coalition promoting political participation of Filipinos.
Coalition member Ronald Mendoza, who is dean of the Ateneo School of Government, made this remark on Thursday at the hearing of the Senate Committee on Electoral Reforms and People’s Participation.
“We found a comparator estimate which suggested that we may have to spend in the order of about P10 billion in addition to what we are normally spending in order to just conduct safe, free, and fair elections,” Mendoza said in a statement.
He said this estimate stemmed from “a study examining the best practices” of about 100 plebiscites or elections in other countries to determine how much “they spent in order to COVID-proof [their] plebiscite or elections.”
Sen. Imee Marcos, committee chair, agreed with the estimate, saying: “That’s not far from my personal estimate, which is 30 percent plus.”
The government spent P6.7 billion for the 2016 presidential elections and P6 billion for the 2019 senatorial elections.
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