THE 2022 national election needs additional appropriation to ensure that it is conducted in a safe and secure manner amid the Covid-19 pandemic, a lawmaker and an expert both agreed.
Senate Electoral Reforms Committee Chairperson Imee R. Marcos estimates that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) will require a 30-percent budget hike to achieve this.
This was her response to Ateneo School of Government Dean Ronald U. Mendoza’s statement during the recent Senate Electoral Reforms Committee hearing on next year’s general poll.
The latter cited a study conducted by a non-partisan, pro-democracy coalition called “Participate,” which showed that the government should allocate more than what were appropriated in the previous years.
The Philippine government spent P6.7 billion for the 2016 presidential election and P6 billion for the 2019 senatorial election.
“We found a comparator estimate which suggested that we may have to spend in the order of about P10 billion in addition to what we are normally spending in order to just conduct safe, free, and fair elections,” Mendoza said.
The estimated amount, according to him, is based on their research examining the best practices of a sample of about 100 nations abroad and how much they spent in order to Covid-proof their holding of plebiscites or elections under pandemic conditions.
Marcos welcomed his statement, saying “That’s not far from my personal estimate, which is 30 percent plus.”
Given the current situation wherein the pandemic continues to spread globally, Mendoza pointed out that the government cannot just simply put resources on the existing system.
He noted that there is a need to reconsider how the 2022 elections will be conducted.
“We need to rethink about new polling places, innovations in how we arrange the throughput of the people who are voting, and if we do this, we will need to mobilize sufficient inputs from both the public sector and the private sector,” he explained.
The dean of the Ateneo School of Government expressed the academic groups’ willingness to help and support the government in preparing for next year’s poll, including providing physical space in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Per Mendoza, their very own group, Participate, is ready to enter talks with the Comelec to find ways to help in some of the inputs for the election preparations.
“This may include, for instance, the extra space that Senator Villar was pointing out; that private schools also have extra space. We are also spread out across the country,” he suggested. “As you know, we are already helping also for the vaccination campaign. As Senator Cynthia mentioned, it’s the same set-up potentially for the elections. It’s open air. There are a lot of arrangements already in place. We can actually draw on that learning as well.”