MikeLigalig.com

Aspirants start preparing warship for coming May elections
Published on Oct 29 2006 - Bohol Standard

“Those aspiring for any position should prepare for the worst-case scenario, and that is to prepare for the May 2007 elections.”

The word came from Malacañang itself following the defeat of a petition for a shift to a parliamentary system of government. Candidates for the House and the Senate are now scrambling to start preparing for next year’s elections after the Supreme Court turned it down on Wednesday the people’s initiative that would have paved the change to parliamentary system of government.

A victory could have meant there would be no elections next year.

The Commission on Elections had set March 29, 2006 as day to file certificate of candidacy for local elective officials. Campaign period starts on March 30 and is allowed up to midnight of May 12, 2006. Election day will be on May 14, 2006. (SEE related story)

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the candidates should prepare for the elections despite a group’s plan to ask the Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling.

“Politics is a practical science,” he said.

But President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said that should there be another congressional election, the final senatorial slate would not be drawn until the eve of the deadline for filing the certificates of candidacy.

She said the administration had paid no attention to the coming elections because “we were focused on the economy.”

She recalled that during the May 2004 elections, the administration’s 12-man senatorial lineup was not finalized until December 2003.

“I made the final choice a day before the deadline for filing the certificate of candidacy,” she said.

“We did not want to be engaged in politicking the whole year round. We attend to politics during the election campaign but during the time of peace, we attend to the economy.”

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=83061.0