Comelec names LP dominant party

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has again named the ruling Liberal Party (LP) as the dominant majority party and the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) as the dominant minority party in this year’s elections.

The two parties also held these places during the 2013 midterm elections.

Comelec Chair Andres Bautista made the announcement in a media forum in Manila on Wednesday.

“After using our formula, we were able to come out with the finding that the dominant majority party is the LP while the dominant minority party is UNA,” said Bautista.

This means that LP and UNA shall be entitled to get the fifth and sixth copies of election returns (ERs), respectively, to be produced by the vote counting machines; receive electronically-transmitted precinct results; get the seventh and eighth copies of the Certificates of Canvass, respectively; and assign official watchers in every polling places and canvassing centers.

No other details have been made available as of press time, particularly on which parties were designated as major national and local parties.

But apart from the LP, Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrat (Lakas-CMD), Achievement with Integrity Movement and Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino, all earlier wanted to be declared the dominant majority party for the 2016 polls.