IT is still a common misconception that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is moribund in between elections.
It could be said, I suppose, that this notion stems from the fact that many people stop thinking about elections after Election Day. But then again, just because they do doesn’t mean we do, as well. In fact, the years—two years, to be precise—between elections are just as busy a time for the Comelec as election year itself.
Take the present, immediate post-election year, for instance. In 2017, with an eye out for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (BSK) elections in 2018 and the National and Local Elections in 2019, the Comelec went through, among other things, two successful voter-registration cycles, completed preparations for the conduct of the BSK Elections, made great strides in promoting inclusivity in elections, and brought voter education to thousands of pre- and first-time voters. That’s a lot of activity for a supposedly inactive institution.
Voter registration
THE first voter-registration period for 2017 resulted in the enlistment of 1,435,587 new voters and 233,411 new members of the Katipunan ng Kabataan, the electorate for Sangguniang Kabataan elections. The success of this first registration period was largely attributable to the effective policy of encouraging the setting up of satellite registration centers
throughout the country, as well as the high degree of interest in the upcoming Barangay and SK elections.
The second round of voter registration was initiated on November 6, as a consequence of the postponement of the BSK elections. From the start until the end of the period on November 30, Comelec offices in all cities and municipalities processed a total of 843,588 voter-registration applications—new voter applications, applications for reactivation, applications for change of name and correction of entries, applications for inclusion and exclusion, and applications for reinstatement in the lists of voters. As of today, these applications are pending with various Election Registration Boards, for hearing and final action, i.e., approval or disapproval. However, it is certain that a significant number of new voters will be joining the rolls at the end of this process.
BSK preparations
Despite pushing back the start date for the printing of more than 70 million official ballots, the task was successfully completed on October 2, ahead of the scheduled October 23 BSK elections.
The timely accomplishment of this task was aided by the Comelec’s decision, dated September 5, to suspend the conduct of elections in Mindanao after the Supreme Court affirmed the declaration of martial law in that part of the country. But as it turned out, on October 4, the BSK elections were postponed anyway, with the President signing the postponement bill authored by Congress. The Comelec’s completed preparations were immediately rolled back, in anticipation of the new, May 2018 schedule for the BSK elections.
Chairmen
ALSO in 2017, Chairman J. Andres D. Bautista resigned from office. Senior Commissioner Christian Robert Lim, upon unanimous vote of the commission en banc, immediately assumed the position of Acting Chairman. This prompt action by the en banc successfully assured continuity of the Comelec’s operations.
On November 22 President Duterte nominated Commissioner Sheriff Abas to the vacancy. Pending consent by the Commission on Appointments, however, Acting Chairman Lim continues in the performance of the duties of the office.
Women in politics
THE year 2017 was a banner year for the Comelec’s Gender and Development Focal Point System (GAD-FPS), which tirelessly promoted gender equality, in and out of the Comelec. Gender sensitivity trainings—including lectures on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression (SOGIE)—were conducted, with the goal of both enhancing the election management body’s continuing efforts to provide a safe and thoroughly professional working environment, and ensuring that our front-line efforts to serve the people would be marked by utmost respect for everyone.
GAD-FPS, likewise, promoted inclusivity and gender-equality in the political arena by convening a successful Women’s Summit on Political Participation in March. This has since been followed by several more such gatherings, culminating in last week’s Joint Asean-UN Workshop and Roundtable Discussion on Electoral Observation and Women’s Participation in Politics, held in Cebu.
On the voter-education front—and closest, of course, to my heart—the Comelec’s Education and Information Department successfully launched its Know Elections Better platform in January 2017. Since then, there have been close to 50 Know Elections Better Seminar sessions, covering 22 schools and two organizations, and reaching 12,089 voters and pre-voters in senior high school.
2019
ALL of that and more, just in the year following an election; in 2018, the Comelec will be even busier, what with the 2018 BSK elections and the major preparations for the midterm polls all crowded into the same
narrow time frame.
Moribund? Hardly.