1. COMMISSION ON
ELECTIONS
Republic of the Philippines

2. LEGAL SOLUTIONS OF
DISPUTES RELATED TO
ELECTION RESULTS
Sources:
Constitution of 1987
Omnibus Election Code
Statutes
COMELEC Rules of Procedures
Rules issued by the Supreme Court

3. Form of Government:
Republican and
Presidential

4. Branches of Government:
Executive Department
Legislative Department
Judicial Department

5. Elective positions are found
in the Executive
Department and Legislative
Department.
All positions in the
Judicial Department are
appointive.

6. The National Lawmaking
body is Congress.
It has two houses– Senate and
House of Representatives.

7. The Senate has 24
Members with a
term of 6 years.

8. The members of the House
of Representatives are of
two classes: those who
represent legislative
districts and are elected by
districts, and those elected
as partylist members and
are elected nationwide.

9. There are different political
subdivisions, namely:
1. Regions– ex. Autonomous Region of
Muslim Mindanao (ARMM)
2. Provinces
3. Cities and municipalities
4. Barangays (The smallest political
unite)

10. In the Executive Department, the
following are elective positions:
1. President and Vice President
2. Regional Governor and Regional Vice
Governor in ARMM.
3. Provincial Governor and Vice Governor.
4. City or Municipal Mayor and Vice Mayor
5. Punong Barangay or Barangay Captain

11. The members of the lawmaking
body in each political subdivision
are all elective. They have a
unicameral lawmaking body.
1. Regional Assembly for Regions
2. Provincial Council for Provinces
3. City or Municipal Council
4. Barangay Council

12. Elective officials have a 3
year term except the
President, Vice President
and Senators who have six
years.

13. Unique Features of Philippine
Elections
Elections are
SYNCHRONIZED hence
elections nationwide take
place every three years– on
the second Monday of May.

14. EFFECT
1. Preparations for elections are very
massive.
2. Election supervision by COMELEC
becomes difficult and provides
opportunities for election
irregularities.
3. Election becomes a long and tedious
process.

15. Unique features of COMELEC
1. Administrative body that
conducts, administers, and
supervises: a) registration of
voters, b) elections of
candidates.
2. Quasi judicial body– acts as a
tribunal or court

16. COMELEC, as a tribunal or
court, has original
jurisdiction to
entertain, hear and decide
election protests and quo
warranto proceedings for
city, provincial and regional
positions.

17. Appellate jurisdiction
over cases decided by
courts for municipal
and barangay
positions.

18. BASIC INFORMATION ON THE
ELECTION PROCESS
1. Casting & counting of votes
are done in the precincts.
2. To record the votes of the
candidates, COMELEC issues
forms called Election Returns.

19. Because elections are
synchronized and there are
so many positions to be voted
for, and there is a multi-party
system there are many
candidates for each position.
As a consequence, election
returns are very long and
may consist of 10 pages.

20. BASIC INFORMATION ON THE
ELECTION PROCESS
3. After the counting of votes and the votes
of candidates are entered in the election
returns, they are then submitted to
Canvassing Boards.
Because in synchronized
elections, national and local positions are
involved, there are several layers of
Canvassing Boards.

21. These are
1. City or Municipal Board of Canvassers.
Canvassing the votes means to consolidate or
add votes of candidates from one precinct to
another. After the board has canvassed the
votes, in their level, they proclaim the winning
candidates for city or municipal positions. They
accomplish a form called certificate of canvass
and proclamation. They also prepare a
statement of votes by precinct for the other
candidates in other positions (i.e.
provincial, congressional, partylist, and
senatorial). In the event it is a national
election they also canvass the votes for
president and vice president.

22. These are
2. Provincial Board of Canvassers: This board
canvasses the votes written in the statement of
votes by precinct as accomplished by the city or
municipal board of canvassers. After the canvass
in their level they also proclaim the winning
candidates for provincial positions. Provincial
board of canvassers also accomplish a statement
of votes by cities or municipalities which they
forward to the commission on elections for
partylist and senatorial positions, and in case of
national elections, they also forward canvass of
votes by cities and municipalities to congress.

23. These are
3. National Board of Canvassers: COMELEC
canvasses the votes for senators and
partylists based on the certificate of
canvass of votes by provincial boards of
canvasses supported by a statement of
votes by cities and municipalities. On the
basis of the canvass they proclaim the
winning candidates for the senate and
partylist.

24. These are
4. Congress in joint session assembled
(Senate and House of Representatives): It
canvasses the votes of candidates for the
positions of President and Vice President
based on the certificate of canvass of
votes submitted by provincial boards of
canvassers and supported by the
statement of votes by cities and
municipalities.

25. All winners are
proclaimed on the basis
of plurality of votes.

26. After the proclamation of the
winning candidates, should there
be any dispute related to election
results, the legal solution is
through an election protest that
may be filed only by a losing
candidate for the same position
being challenged before a proper
electoral tribunal.

27. Different Electoral Tribunals
1. Regional Trial Courts – For municipal elective
positions
2. COMELEC – For city/provincial/regional
positions
3. House of Representatives Electoral Tribunals
(HRET) – For members of House of
Representatives.
4. Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) – For members
of the Senate
5. Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) – For the
position of President or Vice president

28. When to file election protests
1. For municipal positions– within 10 days after
proclamation.
2. For city/provincial/regional positions – within 10
days after proclamation.
3. For members of the House of Representatives –
within 10 days after proclamation.
4. For members of the Senate – within 15 days
after proclamation.
5. For President and Vice President – within 30
days after proclamation.

29. For HRET, SET and PET, these
tribunals are composed of nine
judges, three of whom comes
from the Supreme Court, three
from the dominant majority
party, and three from the
dominant minority party based on
the present membership of
political parties in the two
houses.

30. The election protest may include
correction of manifest errors in the
election returns or a statement of votes by
precinct, city and municipality, such that if
corrected the results of the election will be
altered such that the losing candidate will
have more votes than the winning
candidate.
In this case it seeks to annul the
proclamation of the winner and for the
tribunal to proclaim the protestor or
protestant the winner.

31. The election protest may also be
grounded on election irregularities or
election fraud such as misreading of
ballots, padding or shaving of
votes, terrorism, violence, or vote-
buying. In this case, the election
protest will entail review or rereading
of ballots for the tribunals evaluation
for such precincts identified in the
election protests.

32. An election protest may only
be filed against a duly
proclaimed winner.
It can only be filed by a losing
candidate who was voted in
the election for the same
position.

33. An election protest complaint must
comply strictly with procedural
requirements under rules
a) It must be filed within the reglementary period.
b) All fees required must be paid within the same
reglementary period.
c) It must contain all the allegations required by the
rules to make it sufficient in form and substance.
d) It must be under oath by the protestor or
protestant.
e) It must contain a certification of non-forum
shopping.

34. Answer to an Election Protest
1. Protestee or the proclaimed
winner shall file an answer
within the prescribed period to
file it.
2. It may contain a counter-protest.
For the counter protest, payment
of fees are also required.

35. Procedure
1. After the answer has been filed, the tribunal schedules a pre-trial conference
between the parties to determine whether parties can make stipulation of facts or
admissions.
2. The court aided by the parties may simplify the issues based on the admissions.
3. Determine the number of witnesses during the pre-trial which the parties may
present.
4. Schedule the start of the review of ballots.
5. Revision of ballots is done by a committee of revisers composed of three
persons, the chairman of whom is appointed by the tribunal while the 2 members
are revisers appointed by each party.
6. During the revision of ballots objections by the revisers of the parties may be
made against any ballot. These are all recorded so a revision report per precinct
may be made and submission to the court to enable him to know the disupted
ballots and to make a ruling there all.
7. When all protested precincts had been reviewed or revised by the revisers, the
protestant is ordered to identify 20 percent of the entire protested precincts to
make a preliminary finding whether, on the basis of the 20 percent chosen, there
is enough proof to show that the protestant has a chance to win the protest. If
the 20 percent does not show this chance, the petition is dismissed.

36. If the protestant can show that he has a chance to win
the protest. Then the counter-protested precincts are
revised.
A revision report is also prepared by the revisers
committee to be submitted to the court.
After the evaluation of the disputed ballots by the
court, the tribunal makes rulings and prepares the
decision.
If the protestant wins, the proclamation of the protestee
is annulled and the protestant is proclaimed the winner.
After finality of the decision, the new winner takes his
oath and assumes his position.