NextGen Day

Aspirants who have submitted their Certificates of Candidacy (COCs) for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) are already considered candidates for the election, according to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Friday.

Save/Share this post with QR CODE

This is because the election body would put a prohibition on early campaigning for the vote on October 30.

Comelec Chairman George Garcia stated that this choice was made after thorough consideration of a Supreme Court decision on the subject.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) En Banc has decided that for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE), a person will immediately be considered as a candidate once he or she has filed his or her Certificate of Candidacy (COC), he or she said in a statement. “This is despite the 2009 Supreme Court (SC) landmark decision on the Peera vs Comelec case, a.k.a. Peera

The SC ruling “may well be applicable for the conduct of automated elections alone,” Garcia claimed they came to after arriving at that conclusion.

This excludes the impending BSKE, which will be introduced through a manual vote procedure, in October of this year, he continued.

He said that because the next election will be performed manually, they believe the decision does not apply to those elections.

“From my research, it appears that Peera v. Comelec only applies to computerized elections. According to the rules and regulations we are developing for SK or barangay, Garcia stated, “if one submitted his or her candidacy, you will be deemed considered candidates for the Barangay and SK elections on October 30, 2023.

The Comelec decision, which is often planned weeks or months before the start of the campaign period, determines the COC filing deadline.

Regarding the BSKE, the law specifies that candidates may only run for office for a period of 10 days.

Premature campaigning is any effort that involves promoting elections before the allotted window of time. Election materials shown before the campaign time will be taken down, and anyone found breaking the aforementioned election law will be prosecuted.

He stated that should someone submit a petition to the SC challenging its ruling, they are willing to take the risk and are inclined to engage in a judicial dispute.

Please follow and like us:

2

2k

20