Elections

Comelec starts entertaining party-list applications

This early, the demand for party-list accreditation is high. And this can be seen at the number of bids and applications received by the Commission on Elections. And in the words of the office, there is a ‘groundswell of petitions’ for accreditations and for the right and opportunity to participate in next year’s elections. And that is currently the problem facing the office right now. There are just too many bids for accreditation, and a great number of these applicants are not suited to be called a legitimate party.  Majority of these parties lack the track record in order to qualify and meet the requirements set forth by the office.

The track record will refer to the profile of the organization or the applicant in pushing for the advocacy of the marginalized sectors of the society. And the problem is that many of these organizations don’t have that track record. Once again, the office receives a number of organizations without regional constituency and offices and in the opinion of Commissioner Sarmiento these organizations have filed their applications hastily. In order to be considered by the poll body, the applying organizations must prove that they have a valid reach around the country. And this is just one of the many set qualifications of the office. It was noted too that some of the applicants carry the same platforms and advocacies, thus raising the issue of redundancy. Commissioner Sarmiento also added that there are some applicants that serve as fronts for Malacañang in order to get pork barrel allotments.

In order to weed out the legitimate from the non-legitimate ones, the poll body will look at the established criteria for the party list organizations. They will look at the track record, constituency and a few more. As of this time, the poll body reported that around 85 groups have filed for application to be included in the ballots for next year’s elections. In the last party list elections, around 90 organizations vied for the congressional seats. The poll body chair Jose Melo said that they will still trim the list since a large number may tire and confuse the voters. The office is accepting applications until August 17, and the approved organizations are given until November 13 to finalize their intent.