Even as the Comelec embarks on a slow canvassing of results of the senatorial and partylist contests and winning local candidates are being proclaimed one after another, many are trying to make sense of the outcome of the May 13, 2013 midterm elections.
Here are my initial post-mortem notes on the polls, 13 in all
May 13 is Election Day. Whether you’re voting or not, you have many ways to participate in the process and make it move towards democracy that’s real and substantive.
As netizens, we could use our social media capital to do great things and to be good citizens.
In a decision promulgated and announced today, the Supreme Court granted the petition of Kabataan Partylist Rep. Raymond Palatino and several new voters and national youth organizations to compel the Commission on Elections to extend the voter registration until January 9, 2010 as provided for by law.
The court decision is “immediately executory”.
This is clearly a victory for new voters and Kabataan Partylist, and a slap on the face of the Comelec which has refused to abide by the law and illegally shortened the period of registration by 70 days.
Below is the full text of the Supreme Court decision:
The Commission on Elections en banc on Tuesday adopted a resolution deleting 26 partylist organizations from the official list of accredited national, regional or sectoral parties, organizations or coalitions under the partylist system.
In Resolution No. 8679, signed by the Chairman and all commissioners, the Comelec cited Section 6 of Republic Act 7941 (Partylist System Law) which states that the poll body may remove or cancel the registration of partylist groups that fail to participate in the last two elections or fails to win at least two percent of all votes cast for partylists.
The deleted partylists are:
Various groups today challenged the Commission on Elections to release the source code of the for the Precinct Count Optical Scan-Optical Mark Reader (PCOS-OMR) technology to be used for the 2010 elections.
In a joint statement, the groups said that the source code should be opened to IT professionals and other parties interested in scrutinizing and testing it.