Six years since the party-list system was adopted, over half of Filipino voters still have not heard of it, according to a nationwide independent opinion poll.
Fifty-four percent of 1,800 registered voters surveyed by Pulse Asia said they were unaware of the party-list system, a democratic system provided for by the Constitution.
It was designed to enable all sectors of society to be heard in the legislature and in national policy-making, and meant to prevent a repeat of the brutal Marcos dictatorship.
The election of party-list representatives has been implemented since 1998 to give smaller parties, groups or organizations the chance to elect their representatives to the House of Representatives.
Under the system, each voter may select only one party-list group per sector represented in Congress.
Every two percent of total party-list votes garnered by a group entitles it to one seat in the House. Each group may have a maximum of three representatives, to be elected or appointed by the group. "Non-awareness of the party-list system among the majority goes some way towards explaining why the majority of registered voters also failed to vote for any party-list group," Pulse Asia said in a statement.
The poll, conducted Feb. 16 to 20, has an error margin of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points and at a 95-percent confidence level.
Forty-six party-list groups and organizations were recognized by the Commission on Elections at the time Pulse Asia conducted its survey.
Bayan Muna got the highest number of voter preference (10.2 percent) in the opinion poll, followed by Akbayan Citizens’ Action Party (3.8 percent), Ang Nagkakaisang Kabataan Para sa Sambayan (3.7 percent), Sanlakas (2.6 percent), Alyansang Bayanihan ng Magsasaka, Manggagawang Bukid at Mangingisda at Adhikain at Kilusan ng Ordinaryong Tao (2.5 percent).
Groups that garnered less than two percent were the Luzon Farmers’ Party (1.8 percent), Aksyon Sambayanan (1.7 percent), Citizens’ Battle Against Corruption (1.3 percent), Gabriela Women’s Party (1.3 percent), People’s Movement Against Poverty (1.3 percent), Ang Bagong Bayani-OFW (1.2 percent), Veterans’ Freedom Party (1.2 percent), Buhay Hayaan Yumabong (one percent), and Association of Philippine Electric Cooperatives (one percent).
Although the party-list system was included in the Constitution, representatives were only elected in 1998 after the implementing rules were threshed out.