Comelec extends filing of party-list intent to run

MANILA, Philippines — Party-list groups may file their Manifestation of Intent to Participate in the 2019 elections until May 2.

In a resolution, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) extended the deadline and gave party-list groups two more days to file their manifestation. 

The deadline for the filing of Petitions for Registration and Manifestation of Intent to Participate of new party-list groups, coalitions and organizations is supposed to be today.

The Comelec is mandated by law to set dates for certain pre-election acts.

“If it should no longer be reasonably possible to observe the periods and dates prescribed by law for certain pre-election acts, the Commission shall fix other periods and dates,” the poll body said.

In the 2016 national elections, a total of 115 accredited party-list groups were allowed to participate.

Of the 115 participating party-list groups, 46 organizations have been occupying 59 party-list seats in the House of Representatives.

Election management system

The Comelec has also asked the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), to allow the use of its election management system (EMS) in the preparations for next year’s midterm elections to save on costs.

In a seven-page manifestation and motion filed last week, the poll body asked the SC to lift the EMS and its servers from coverage of the precautionary protection order issued in July 2016 for the election protest of former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. against Vice President Leni Robredo.

The EMS servers contain the election database, including the project of precincts, voting jurisdictions, list of candidates, among others. These also create the election configuration per precinct level, including the Consolidation and Canvassing System (CCS), vote counting machines, Secure Digital Cards and provide security configurations and digital certificates and private key certificate per vote counting machines issued to the Board of Canvassers and Board of Election Inspectors.

The Comelec plans to use the hardware of the EMS servers for next year’s elections, but will turn over the hard disk and storage device to the PET. 

The poll body explained that the EMS is necessary for poll preparations since it is the “core or brain” of the automated election system.

In the election protest of former interior secretary Mar Roxas against former vice president Jejomar Binay, the PET granted the request of Comelec to reuse the EMS server and CCS laptops used in the May 2013 and May 2010 elections. – With Edu Punay