The special election

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor CHERYL CRUZ Desk Editor PATRICK PANGILINAN Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

How do the residents of the Fifth District of Negros Occidental feel about the holding of a special election to elect the person who will take over the position left vacant by the death of the incumbent congressman, Ignacio Arroyo, in January this year?

While the question is now academic, with the announcement that Congress has approved the holding of the election, and that it has even been set on June 2 this year, there are still many who question the necessity of going through the exercise, with the regular elections already due next year. This means that whoever gets elected to replace Arroyo, will have even less than a year to serve before he or she has to face another election.

The Chairman of the Commission on Election himself, even at the outset, had been very clear about his stand on the holding of such an election, considering the proximity of the regular one. He, however, is left without a choice, after the members of Congress approved it. Even a noted election lawyer has expressed his doubts over the practicality of going through the polls at this time, when the registration for the regular polls are also set to start in a few months.

There is, too, the problem of the costs of going through a premature election. It has been noted that the government stands to spend something like P30, million to conduct it. A suggestion has been made that the amount be given instead to the towns and cities in the district, to be used for infrastructure construction or improvement, and not frittered away in an election that may serve the political ends of some leaders, but will hardly impact on the communities covered, considering the time between the registration, verifications, the actual voting, counting and proclamation of the winner – granting that the results are not protested.

Election lawyer Romulo Makalintal has called the special polls a “waste of time”. The way it looks, it could also be a waste of money as well.*