By James Jimenez
A long time ago, Juan Bautista decided to run for the Senate. In due time, he files his paperwork and dutifully provides the COMELEC his name to put on the ballot. He campaigns and draws huge crowds everywhere; everyone – even his political adversaries – all but concede that he is a shoo-in; and as election day draws near, his popularity only surges. But when the results come in, the gentleman loses, hardly registering at all on the election tally-boards. Three years later, he tries again and ends up at the top of the list of winners, running this time, by his screen name, Ramon Revilla.
This story may well be apocryphal, but it illustrates an important lesson. The electorate doesn’t care about the name your mother gave you – it will respond to the name that they know you by. This is a well-known lesson to most politicians, which has led over the years, to some interesting schemes to make candidates’ names more “winnable,” for lack of a better word.
The COMELEC however, has prescribed some rules to govern how names appear on the ballots – and that’s what today’s series of Fast Facts will focus on.
Fast Fact #1: There is a 30-character limitation on the length of the name to appear on the ballot. This limit is inclusive of spaces, letters, numbers, and punctuation. As you suspected, this limitation is put in place largely because names that are too long would take up too much space on the ballots.
Fast Fact #2: The proper of order of names on the ballot is: surname, followed by the first name or the candidat’s nickname, followed finally either by the acronym of the political party or coalition fielding the candidate, or the initials IND, if the candidate is running independent.
A doctor running for office, therefore, would probably appear on the ballot like: “Manuel, Jose IND.” Alternatively, the candidate could opt to use the nickname by which he is popularly known, thus: “Manuel, Dok Joe (IND)”
Fast Fact #3: A married female aspirant, on the other hand, may use either her maiden name or married name or both, whichever she prefers, subject to the 30-character limitation, and following the same naming pattern of surname, given name or nickname, affiliation.
Regardless of marital status, a woman candidate can use her maiden name and first name, thus: “Manuel, Josefa (IND)” or she might opt to use a nickname – “Manuel, Josie (IND).”
If the candidate is married, she might simply go with her maiden name, which would then appear as “Sison, Josefa (IND)” or “Sison, Josie (IND).” She may also choose to hyphenate: “Manuel-Sison, Josefa (IND)” or “Manuel-Sison, Josie (IND).”
Fast Fact #4: While the candidate does get some say in how their name will appear on the ballot, there are scenarios where the COMELEC Law Department will step in and make that decision for them.
Specifically, the Law Department gets to decide how the candidate’s name will appear on the ballot if the aspirant fails to indicate the name to appear on the official ballot, or , even if a name is indicated, it is nevertheless not in accordance with the guidelines, such as when the name indicated goes over the 30-character limit.
If multiple first names are written, and the whole name exceeds the 30-character limit, then the nickname will be used instead of the first names. If, on the other hand, there are multi-worded nicknames used, bring the total character count to more than 30, then the candidate’s first name will be used instead. And finally, if the candidates writes a combination of first names and nicknames which exceeds the character count limit, only the first name written will end up on the ballot, with the surname, and affiliation (whether political party or IND).
Interestingly, if the matter is left up to the Law Department, it is actually allowed to simply use the same name that the candidate used in previous elections.
Fast Fact #5: The COMELEC’s ministerial duty to receive and acknowledge the receipt of the COC and the CONA can only be invoked when the COC and the CONA are in full conformity with the guidelines.
This means that, in receiving the COC and the CONA, the receiving officer must first evaluate the documents to see whether they conform to the guidelines; and ensure that all five copies of the COC pertain to the same office and are all properly filled out.
If any item in the COC is left blank, the aspirant will be required to complete the item. If, on the other hand, the documents are being filed by an authorized representative, the rep will not have the authority to supply the missing information! The representative’s job is to inform the actual candidate that the missing info needs to be filled out, and the completed document filed before the end of the period for filing.
Ultimately, a COC that doesn’t conform to the COMELEC’s guidelines, is not signed, or is filed beyond the filing period, simply won’t be accepted.
