The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has moved to purge “almost three-fourths” of nearly 600 persons who filed certificates of candidacy (COCs) for president, vice president, senator, and party-list representative for the 2022 polls.
In a webinar Thursday, Elaiza Sabile-David, Comelec Education and Information Department Director, said the commission’s Law Department already filed petitions to declare as nuisance around 75 percent of the 569 aspirants for national posts.
“From what I’ve heard, almost 3/4 will be declared [nuisance]. The Law Department already filed petitions declaring these aspirants [nuisance]. We are just waiting for the declaration,” Sabile-David said.
Based on the latest Comelec data, 97 filed COCs for president, 28 filed for vice president, 174 filed for senator, and 270 filed for party-list seats.
The number of names in the 2016 ballots were 6 out of 130 presidential aspirants, 6 out of 19 vice presidential aspirants, 50 out of 172 Senate aspirants, and 115 party-list groups.
Comelec spokesman James Jimenez earlier said the final list of names that would be in the 2022 ballots may be finalized in December.
Last week, the Comelec Law Department said it supports the bill imposing a P100,000 fine against those who would be declared nuisance candidates.
Under Comelec’s rule of procedure, a candidate can be considered a nuisance if he or she wants to put the election process in mockery or disrepute, wants to cause confusion among voters, and clearly demonstrated to have no bona fide intention to run.