by Dong de los Reyes October 18, 2021 Team OPES Quezon. (Photo from Comelec Region IV-A - Office of the Provincial Election Supervisor, Quez...
October 18, 2021
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| Team OPES Quezon. (Photo from Comelec Region IV-A - Office of the Provincial Election Supervisor, Quezon FB Page) |
LUCENA CITY - The money-making tack just won't work anymore.
Modus operandi: Not-really serious aspirant for a top elective post has the same surname as the leading candidate, and would throw his hat into the ring, in that bid that the leading politico or handlers would offer money for him to withdraw his candidacy. Surnamesake gets paid and would laugh all the way to the bank.
Or the transaction could go gruesome, not-so-serious aspirant is threatened with grievous harm or is summarily taken out of contention with the usual guns and goons-- not gold.
The Commission on Elections usually comes to the rescue to avert such a tragedy. The constitutional body declares certain candidates as "nuisance" whose bids for election are a joke, a prank to confuse the electorate.
Even if Comelec accommodates all and sundry aspirants in the official ballot, voting is a longer a cumbersome chore, all a voter does is "itiman ang itlog ng kandidato" as a ballot provides a multiple choice list of names as part and parcel of the current computerized polls. Gone are the days when the voter has to fill in a short size ballot not longer than legal size coupon band with the names or surnames of candidates.
Too, Comelec declares candidacy of certain aspirants as "nuisance" based on their capacity to shoulder the costs of a no-nonsense campaign-- from poll posters, caucuses, rallies, meetings and such that can drain a politico's funds that somehow increases the money in circulation, eases inflation, and thus, perks up the economy.
The Comelec move to trim the list of candidates is a cost-cutting measure. Taking 'em all in-- even Noah was told to just bring in a pair of lowly creation to the ark-- would entail gargantuan costs in ink and paper. Such would void the possibility of having ballots of the length of toilet paper or the size of streamers that just wouldn't fit into a ballot box.
A cursory look at the names of candidates gunning for the top elective post of Quezon province reveals three Suarezes and two Tans in the running. Re-electionist governor Danilo Suarez and Rep. Angelina "Helen" Tan are the top contenders, while the six other aspirants can be considered as also-rans in the run.
In 2019, Quezon province had 1,284,444 registered voters with females outnumbering males-- 661,943 to 622,501.
Comelec took note that from a voting population of 61 million in 2019, they have deactivated nearly 3 million voters for failing to vote for two consecutive elections, leaving only around 59 million registered voters.
As of June this year, Comelec records show some 61 million voters-- 52 percent are young voters who can decide the outcome of the May 2022 local and national polls.
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