On party ratings, Comelec declares LP as majority, UNA as minority

Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Tuesday has declared the Liberal Party (LP) and the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) as the dominant majority and dominant minority parties respectively.

Four other parties, the Nacionalista Party (NP), Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), Lakas, and National Unity Party (NUP), will all be the major parties, Comelec Chairman Sixto Brilliantes Jr. told reporters.

He said they were determined through ratings that is based on a criteria provided in the law.

The dominant parties are determined by taking into account their years of existence, number of incumbents, number of fielded candidates, number of organizational charters, and analogous circumstances, Brillantes said.

He said however that they had a few debates when it came to determining the dominant parties because in the ratings, NP was higher than UNA.

“Only problem is NP did not apply or dominant, only LP, UNA and Lakas [had applied],” Brillantes said.

When asked what was the purpose of proclaiming dominant parties, Brillantes said it was “to determine who [was higher in rank] to know who is better.”

Brillantes also said that in the old system of manual elections, the dominant parties are entitled to the first copies of the election returns.

“In manual, there are only seven copies of election returns, dominant parties get two copies which is a big thing,” Brillantes said.

But under the automated elections, there are many copies of election returns already available so “it’s not as interesting anymore as before during the manual,” he said.