COMMISSION ON ELECTIONS Republic of the Philippines

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COMMISSION ON ELECTIONSRepublic of the
Philippines
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LEGAL SOLUTIONS OF DISPUTES RELATED TO ELECTION
RESULTS

• Sources
• Constitution of 1987
• Omnibus Election Code
• Statutes
• COMELEC Rules of Procedures
• Rules issued by the Supreme Court

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Form of GovernmentRepublican and Presidential
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Branches of Government

• Executive DepartmentLegislative
  DepartmentJudicial Department

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Elective positions are found in the Executive
Department and Legislative Department.

• All positions in the Judicial Department are
  appointive.

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The National Lawmaking body is Congress.
It has two houses Senate and House of
Representatives.
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The Senate has 24 Members with a term of 6 years.
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The members of the House of Representatives are
of two classes those who represent legislative
districts and are elected by districts, and those
elected as partylist members and are elected
nationwide.
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There are different political subdivisions,
namely

• Regions ex. Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao
  (ARMM)
• Provinces
• Cities and municipalities
• Barangays (The smallest political unite)

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In the Executive Department, the following are
elective positions

• President and Vice President
• Regional Governor and Regional Vice Governor in
  ARMM.
• Provincial Governor and Vice Governor.
• City or Municipal Mayor and Vice Mayor
• Punong Barangay or Barangay Captain

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The members of the lawmaking body in each
political subdivision are all elective. They have
a unicameral lawmaking body.

• Regional Assembly for Regions
• Provincial Council for Provinces
• City or Municipal Council
• Barangay Council

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Elective officials have a 3 year term except the
President, Vice President and Senators who have
six years.
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Unique Features of Philippine Elections

• Elections are SYNCHRONIZED hence elections
  nationwide take place every three years on the
  second Monday of May.

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EFFECT

• Preparations for elections are very massive.
• Election supervision by COMELEC becomes difficult
  and provides opportunities for election
  irregularities.
• Election becomes a long and tedious process.

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Unique features of COMELEC

• Administrative body that conducts, administers,
  and supervises a) registration of voters, b)
  elections of candidates.
• Quasi judicial body acts as a tribunal or court

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COMELEC, as a tribunal or court, has original
jurisdiction to entertain, hear and decide
election protests and quo warranto proceedings
for city, provincial and regional positions.
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Appellate jurisdiction over cases decided by
courts for municipal and barangay positions.
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BASIC INFORMATION ON THE ELECTION PROCESS

• Casting counting of votes are done in the
  precincts.
• To record the votes of the candidates, COMELEC
  issues forms called Election Returns.

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Because elections are synchronized and there are
so many positions to be voted for, and there is a
multi-party system there are many candidates for
each position.As a consequence, election
returns are very long and may consist of 10 pages.
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BASIC INFORMATION ON THE ELECTION PROCESS

• 3. After the counting of votes and the votes of
  candidates are entered in the election returns,
  they are then submitted to Canvassing Boards.
• Because in synchronized elections, national and
  local positions are involved, there are several
  layers of Canvassing Boards.

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These are

• City or Municipal Board of Canvassers. Canvassing
  the votes means to consolidate or add votes of
  candidates from one precinct to another. After
  the board has canvassed the votes, in their
  level, they proclaim the winning candidates for
  city or municipal positions. They accomplish a
  form called certificate of canvass and
  proclamation. They also prepare a statement of
  votes by precinct for the other candidates in
  other positions (i.e. provincial, congressional,
  partylist, and senatorial). In the event it is a
  national election they also canvass the votes for
  president and vice president.

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These are

• 2. Provincial Board of Canvassers This board
  canvasses the votes written in the statement of
  votes by precinct as accomplished by the city or
  municipal board of canvassers. After the canvass
  in their level they also proclaim the winning
  candidates for provincial positions. Provincial
  board of canvassers also accomplish a statement
  of votes by cities or municipalities which they
  forward to the commission on elections for
  partylist and senatorial positions, and in case
  of national elections, they also forward canvass
  of votes by cities and municipalities to congress.

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These are

• 3. National Board of Canvassers COMELEC
  canvasses the votes for senators and partylists
  based on the certificate of canvass of votes by
  provincial boards of canvasses supported by a
  statement of votes by cities and municipalities.
  On the basis of the canvass they proclaim the
  winning candidates for the senate and partylist.

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These are

• 4. Congress in joint session assembled (Senate
  and House of Representatives) It canvasses the
  votes of candidates for the positions of
  President and Vice President based on the
  certificate of canvass of votes submitted by
  provincial boards of canvassers and supported by
  the statement of votes by cities and
  municipalities.

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All winners are proclaimed on the basis of
plurality of votes.
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After the proclamation of the winning candidates,
should there be any dispute related to election
results, the legal solution is through an
election protest that may be filed only by a
losing candidate for the same position being
challenged before a proper electoral tribunal.
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Different Electoral Tribunals

• Regional Trial Courts For municipal elective
  positions
• COMELEC For city/provincial/regional positions
• House of Representatives Electoral Tribunals
  (HRET) For members of House of Representatives.
• Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) For members of
  the Senate
• Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) For the
  position of President or Vice president

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When to file election protests

• 1. For municipal positions within 10 days after
  proclamation.
• 2. For city/provincial/regional positions
  within 10 days after proclamation.
• 3. For members of the House of Representatives
  within 10 days after proclamation.
• 4. For members of the Senate within 15 days
  after proclamation.
• 5. For President and Vice President within 30
  days after proclamation.

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For HRET, SET and PET, these tribunals are
composed of nine judges, three of whom comes from
the Supreme Court, three from the dominant
majority party, and three from the dominant
minority party based on the present membership of
political parties in the two houses.
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The election protest may include correction of
manifest errors in the election returns or a
statement of votes by precinct, city and
municipality, such that if corrected the results
of the election will be altered such that the
losing candidate will have more votes than the
winning candidate.In this case it seeks to annul
the proclamation of the winner and for the
tribunal to proclaim the protestor or protestant
the winner.
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The election protest may also be grounded on
election irregularities or election fraud such as
misreading of ballots, padding or shaving of
votes, terrorism, violence, or vote-buying. In
this case, the election protest will entail
review or rereading of ballots for the tribunals
evaluation for such precincts identified in the
election protests.
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An election protest may only be filed against a
duly proclaimed winner.It can only be filed by
a losing candidate who was voted in the election
for the same position.
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An election protest complaint must
comply strictly with procedural requirements
under rules

• It must be filed within the reglementary period.
• All fees required must be paid within the same
  reglementary period.
• It must contain all the allegations required by
  the rules to make it sufficient in form and
  substance.
• It must be under oath by the protestor or
  protestant.
• It must contain a certification of non-forum
  shopping.

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Answer to an Election Protest

• Protestee or the proclaimed winner shall file an
  answer within the prescribed period to file it.
• It may contain a counter-protest. For the counter
  protest, payment of fees are also required.

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Procedure

• After the answer has been filed, the tribunal
  schedules a pre-trial conference between the
  parties to determine whether parties can make
  stipulation of facts or admissions.
• The court aided by the parties may simplify the
  issues based on the admissions.
• Determine the number of witnesses during the
  pre-trial which the parties may present.
• Schedule the start of the review of ballots.
• Revision of ballots is done by a committee of
  revisers composed of three persons, the chairman
  of whom is appointed by the tribunal while the 2
  members are revisers appointed by each party.
• During the revision of ballots objections by the
  revisers of the parties may be made against any
  ballot. These are all recorded so a revision
  report per precinct may be made and submission to
  the court to enable him to know the disupted
  ballots and to make a ruling there all.
• When all protested precincts had been reviewed or
  revised by the revisers, the protestant is
  ordered to identify 20 percent of the entire
  protested precincts to make a preliminary finding
  whether, on the basis of the 20 percent chosen,
  there is enough proof to show that the protestant
  has a chance to win the protest. If the 20
  percent does not show this chance, the petition
  is dismissed.

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If the protestant can show that he has a chance
to win the protest. Then the counter-protested
precincts are revised.A revision report is also
prepared by the revisers committee to be
submitted to the court.After the evaluation of
the disputed ballots by the court, the tribunal
makes rulings and prepares the decision.If the
protestant wins, the proclamation of the
protestee is annulled and the protestant is
proclaimed the winner.After finality of the
decision, the new winner takes his oath and
assumes his position.