Along with finalizing the list of voters for next year’s elections, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is working to reduce the number of candidates from the president all the way down to municipal and city councilors.
Based on the final numbers, the Comelec has its work cut out for them. For the country’s presidency alone, the Comelec has to reduce 100 candidates to a manageable few.
The number of candidates for local positions may be a lot less troublesome. In Cebu, there are six candidates for governor and three for vice governor. This makes it easier to list down their names in the ballot to be inserted in Smartmatic-refurbished automated machines.
It’s in the national positions where Comelec’s discernment will be tested when vetting a candidate. The process may be tedious but necessary if only to assure the voting public as well as those who took the time to file their candidacies that their rights are not being ignored, only measured in light of the security and sustainability of the election process.
The candidates to the presidency run the gamut from the established—Liberal Party’s Mar Roxas, Sen. Grace Poe and Vice President Jejomar Binay—to the plain absurd.
But the 1987 Philippine Constitution doesn’t bar Filipinos from running for presidenr even if he calls himself Archangel Lucifer or claims to be the long-lost husband of presidential sister Kris Aquino.
That said, the right of Filipinos to run for the presidency or any other post despite the absence of political machinery can be a suicide mission or an open invitation to public ridicule.
Not even social media can propel someone to the country’s highest post, only a shot at some high-end reality show (cough, AlDub).
In 2004, the elections saw one nuisance candidate, singer Eddie Gil, make a mockery not only of the elections but also of his followers when he bailed out on them during one campaign sortie.
The Omnibus Election Code defines a nuisance candidate as someone who files a COC “to put the election process in mockery or disrepute or to cause confusion among the voters by the similarity of the names of the registered candidates.”
In accepting the certificates of candidacy of persons who may or may not eventually make the final cut, the Comelec is simply recognizing their right to file while quietly determining if he or she is fit to run for public office.
It won’t be a cakewalk but the Comelec certainly will trim that list to a comfortable few before the December 10 deadline.
By that time, we may even know if Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte makes good on his promise that he won’t run for the presidency.
Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Cebudailynews. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.
