MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections would delete nuisance candidates in the May 2022 polls to come up with the final list of candidates before the year ends, Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon said yesterday.
“Tentative means we, Comelec, will delete nuisance candidates. Final list must be done this month,” Guanzon said on her official Twitter account @rowena_guanzon, referring to a news article on the release of the tentative list of aspiring candidates.
On Friday, the Comelec published on its official website the tentative list of candidates in the May 2022 national and local elections. In the tentative list, the Comelec identified 15 aspiring presidents, nine vice presidential candidates and 70 senatorial hopefuls.
It also included 171 party-list groups in the tentative list, after adding five more to the previous 166 groups that qualified in the Dec. 14 raffle to determine their order in the official ballot.
The five party-list groups – Arise, IWI, Ang Tinig ng Seniors, LBP and the Ipeaceeepanaw – were added after securing a temporary restraining order (TRO) from the Supreme Court against the poll body’s decision to deny their application for registration in the country’s party-list system.
Guanzon said that they would not raffle party-list numbers again for those that have secured SC’s TRO as their names will be added in the ballot, adding that the Comelec would need to have the “final ballot face” this month before the printing of the ballot begins on Jan. 2.