Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Rowena Guanzon (File photo)
MANILA, Philippines — Up to 166 party list groups have been accredited in the May 9, 2022, polls, and they are “too many” once printed on the ballot, even for a longtime official of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
“Voters have to be told by the Electoral Board that the party list (groups) are at the back of the ballot. Too many,” Commissioner Rowena Guanzon said on Twitter on Wednesday.
Comelec records showed that in the 2019 midterm elections, when 134 party list groups were listed on the back side of the ballot, about 15.9 million voters either did not pick a party list or missed the roll entirely.
The Comelec on Tuesday held an electronic raffle for the assigned number of party list groups to be included in the ballot.
In the past, the groups were listed alphabetically, but the poll body did away with this format as it had enticed many aspirants to give themselves names starting with the letter A or number 1 for the advantage of appearing early among the choices.
Based on the results of Tuesday’s raffle, the Katipunan ng Maralita at Malayang Mamamayan Inc. will be the first in the 2022 ballot, while Buhay Hayaan Yumabong will appear last.
Of the 166 groups accredited, 152 are assured of participation so far while the applications of 14 groups are being reevaluated after an initial rejection.
The poll body has denied with finality the application of 107 other groups.
Application ‘defects’
In her tweet, Guanzon also expressed regret over the rejection of a group that seeks to represent nurses and another that stands for the gay community.
“I feel for Nurses United but their petition was dismissed because of several defects. The same for Ang Ladlad,” she said.
Under Republic Act No. 7941, a party list group has to get at least 2 percent of the total votes cast to earn a seat in the House of Representatives, where it can have a maximum of three seats.
The Constitution instituted party list elections to give marginalized and underrepresented sectors a chance to elect representatives in Congress.
In 2013, the Supreme Court revised a previous ruling and allowed even political parties and groups not necessarily representing such sectors to participate. For critics, it has since provided a backdoor for traditional, dynastic politicians to enter the race.