Low Turnout for Party-List Votes in Northern Luzon

The election turnout in Northern Luzon and Cordillera shows that party-list elections are not yet popular among the electorate. Many did not cast their vote for party-list in the ballots. This can also be seen in most election returns in other provinces where many party-list groups got zero.

BY NORTHERN DISPATCH
Bulatlat.com

BAGUIO CITY (Nordis) - Six progressive parties of about 50 party-list groups did well in the May 10 polls in Northern Luzon as shown by the official canvassing in the various provinces.  NORDIS gathered complete returns only in Baguio City and Benguet province. 

Party list Bayan Muna gathered 5,230, the biggest for party-list, repeating its fete here in the May 2001 polls. Not far behind is Gabriela Women’s Party with 4,150 votes.  The third group with 3,742 votes is Buhay Hayaan Yumabong. 

Others in the top 12 are Citizen’s Battle against Corruption (3,742); Anakpawis (2,509); Akbayan! Citizens’ Action Party (1,989); Philippine Association of Retired Persons (1,830); Migrante Sectoral Party of Overseas Filipinos and their Families (1,665); Elderly (1,525) Anak ng Bayan (1,382)  and  Veterans’ Freedom Party (1,355). 

In Benguet, Bayan Muna, with 3,710 votes was bested by APEC which had 8,317 of the total party-list votes, and COOP-NATCO which landed in second place 5,197 votes. 

Also in the top ten are Anakpawis (2,212); Buhay (2,120); Abanse-Pinay (2031); CBAC (1,983); VFP (1,943); Gabriela (1,657); and ABA AKO (1,002). 

Final reports were also taken in Ilocos Sur and La Union but only the six party-list performance was recorded with the other party-lists which gathered the highest votes. 

Only partial returns were gathered in other Cordillera provinces. 

La Union

In La Union, Bayan Muna, with 6,680 votes ranked third behind APEC (11,517) and AVE (6,766).   Akbayan, Partido Manggagawa, CBAC, and VFP got more votes than Anakpawis (2,981) and Gabriela (2,754), which landed 8th and 9th placers, respectively.   Anak ng Bayan (1,818) and Migrante Sectoral Party (1,221 placed 14th and 16th, respectively. 

Ilocos Sur electorate gave APEC 11,783 votes, Bayan Muna, 6,580 and Anakpawis, 4,317. VFP, COOP-NATCO, Butil Farmers’ Party, AVE, Anak ng Bayan  and OMMAR are among the top 10. 

The election returns in Ifugao, Kalinga and Abra are not yet completed as of press time but it can be deduced from the partial reports that the six party-list groups enjoyed a sizeable percentage in the votes.

In Kalinga, for instance, Bayan Muna garnered 5,571 votes in four municipalities.  Gabriela had 1,014 votes while Anak ng Bayan (207), Migrante (123) and Anakpawis (103) had a fair share in the provincial partial returns. 

Abra voters registered 1,912 votes for Bayan Muna, 736 for Migrante, 710 for Gabriela, 202 for Anak ng Bayan and 168 for Anakpawis.  Likewise in Ifugao, Bayan Muna gathered 4,601 votes, making it second to APEC.  Its sister parties also got fair votes in three municipalities in the province.  

The election turnout implies that party-list elections are not yet very popular among Cordillera and Northern Luzon electorate.  Most voters did not fill out the portion for party-list in the ballots.  This can also be seen in most election returns where most party-list groups got zero.

In Baguio City, only 44,465, or about 46 percent of the electorate, voted for a party-list out of the more than 95,000 voters.  About 25 percent of this number voted for the six progressive party-list groups. 

Fifty-two seats are at stake for party-list representatives in the lower house of the Philippine Congress. 

Bayan Muna president and No. 1 nominee Satur Ocampo said earlier that he encourages other party-list groups to seek seats in Congress for the marginalized sectors to be represented in the law-making body. Lyn V. Ramo for NORDIS / Posted by Bulatlat.com

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