‘2013 polls to be rigged with problems’
Next year’s polls are likely to be “rigged with problems” as the Commission on Elections (Comelec) grapples with the tasks of cleansing the roster of party-list groups as well as strictly enforcing campaign financing rules, Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes said yesterday.
“My outlook is that the 2013 elections will be rigged with problems. We want to clean everything and the good thing that happened to the Comelec is that we are now complete,” he said, referring to the appointment of former Isabela governor Grace Padaca as new commissioner. “On election day, I will really pray very hard. It’s terrible.”
He said screening party-list organizations had been a challenging task for the Comelec.
“Since May up to the present, we have been reviewing the lists of party-list groups. Imagine, there are almost 300 existing and new applicants. A week ago we removed 17 and then another 13. We are really working hard on this,” he told a media seminar jointly organized by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism and the United States Agency for International Development.
He said the Comelec would continue its strict implementation of the party-list law even if it would mean disqualifying groups that already have incumbent members in the House of Representatives.
“In the past, the Comelec was somehow relaxed. But now we are really strict so you can expect more groups, incumbent or not, to be removed in the coming days,” he said.
The Comelec also intends to strictly implement the law limiting campaign expenditures, especially in the absence of a law on premature campaigning.
Under Section 13 of Republic Act 7166, candidates for president and vice-president may spend only P10 per voter. Other candidates supported by a political party may spend only P3 per voter, while those not nominated by a political party may spend P5 for every voter.
Political parties, on the other hand, are limited to spend only P5 for every voter registered in areas or districts where they have official candidates.
Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said some candidates do not only violate the law limiting campaign expenditures but also abuse the lack of law on premature campaigning.
To make up for this, he explained the poll body came up with Resolution No. 9476 or the Rules and Regulations Governing Campaign Finance and Disclosure last June.
Jimenez added that Section 4 of Rule 1 of the resolution refers to “election propaganda” as “any matter broadcast, published, printed, or exhibited which is intended to draw the attention of the public or a segment thereof to promote or oppose, directly or indirectly, the election of a particular candidate or candidates to a public office.”
“Even among reporters, many are asking me Ð ‘Director if there is no word ‘vote for me’ is it okay?’ So what this particular provision says is that with or without the ‘vote for me’ word, as long as it is clear that it is intended to directly or indirectly promote the candidacy of a person, then that is considered campaign propaganda,” Jimenez said.
No extension
Brillantes also ruled out an extension of voter’s registration for the 2013 polls after the Oct. 31 deadline.
“No extension. Continuing voter’s registration has been going on for more than one and a half years now,” Brillantes said on his Twitter account @ChairBrillantes.
The Oct. 31 deadline covers even the registration for overseas absentee voting and applications for transfer of registration records.
The Comelec had also reminded the youth who registered and voted in the 2010 Sangguniang Kabataan polls to register again so they can vote next year.
Records showed there were 50.7 million registered in the 2010 elections. Some 28.4 million of the 2010 voters came from Luzon; 12.1 million from the Visayas and 10.3 million from Mindanao.