Comelec problem: 130 for President

With the filing of certificates of candidacy (COCs) now officially closed, the next big challenge for the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is how to cut down the number of candidates qualified to run in the May 2016 elections.

“The problem is if we have 130 presidential candidates come Election Day,” Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez told reporters.

The number of aspirants who went to the Comelec headquarters from Oct. 12 to 16 to make official their intent to run for President was “record-breaking,” he said.

“We have 130, that’s a lot,” he said.

But the good thing about the system is that it is robust, Jimenez said.

“It has a strong mechanism for cutting these 130 filers down to the reasonable few,” he said.

The Comelec will come up with a set of guidelines on how to narrow down the number of candidates who filed COCs, Jimenez said.

In the 2010 elections, 99 filed COCs for President but only 10 were declared official candidates.

Jimenez said the Comelec gave all those wishing to file their COCs the opportunity to run.

“The evaluation process is not actually that simplistic. Obviously, there is a tendency to dismiss the candidates offhand,” he said.

“But at the same time, we reserve the right to really cut it (the number) down to those with a reasonable expectation of victory,” Jimenez said.

According to Jimenez, a candidate is disqualified and declared a nuisance based on criteria set by the Omnibus Election Code. But a candidate cannot be declared a nuisance without undergoing the process, he said.

“[Nuisance candidates are] those who filed their COCs in order to make a mockery of the election system; those who have filed their COCs and seek to confuse voters through a similarity of names [with other] candidates; and those who filed their COCs without [a] bona fide intention of actually running for office,” Jimenez said.

The ability to run a “meaningful campaign leading to a reasonable expectation of victory” is another question, he said.

Comelec Chair Andres Bautista, in a separate interview, said he was pleased with the outcome of the five-day filing of COCs.

“I think we were able to preserve the festive atmosphere but still the process was orderly,” he said.

He said the Comelec was now focused on encouraging voters to register and validate their biometrics from Oct. 17 to 31.