Comelec: Unlike party-list, no ballot spot raffle for other posts

Commission on Elections Chairperson George Erwin Garcia (3rd from left)  (PNA photo by Avito Dalan)

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Friday ruled out the raffle system for the numerical arrangement of candidates for other political positions like what they do for party-list groups.

Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia made this clear after the raffle for the order of party-list aspirants in the ballot for midterm elections at the Palacio del Gobernador in Manila.

“For senators and other positions like in Sanggunian (town council) we would not do that, we will only do the alphabetical arrangement,” Garcia said in an ambush interview.

“If we did that, we would have to raffle down to the arrangement of Sangguniang Panlalawigan (town council) candidates, even the political parties in Bangsamoro, it should not be like that. We only did that in party-lists because there are so many of them, and therefore, voters may be confused if many of the names start with ‘1’ or ‘A’,” added Garcia.

Since the 2013 midterm elections, Comelec has conducted an electronic raffle to determine the numerical arrangement of party-lists in the ballot.

Before this system was held, several party-lists tried to go around the system by putting the number “1” or letter “A” in their initials in a bid to get the coveted top spot in the ballot.