SC: votes for nuisance candidates considered strays

MANILA, Philippines — Votes cast for a nuisance candidate shall be considered “stray votes” and shall not be counted in favor of any other candidate, according to a new rule set by the Supreme Court (SC).

In a decision promulgated on Dec. 3, penned by Associate Justice Maria Filomena Singh, the SC voted to abandon existing jurisprudence which were all promulgated before the transition to an automated election system.

Under the prevailing doctrine on manual elections, votes for nuisance candidates are counted in favor of the legitimate candidate, as no other candidate is deemed to have run for that position as of the day of the election.

The SC, in its new decision, pronounced that “votes clearly cast for the nuisance candidate, whose certificate of candidacy is cancelled or not given due course, are considered stray votes and shall not be counted in favor of any other candidate.”

The SC said counting the votes for a nuisance candidate in favor of the legitimate candidate “supplants people’s choices on the basis of perceived errors in the way they had cast their vote.”

The SC said this practice “usurps the very sovereign will” of voters which the Omnibus Election Code intends to protect.