MANILA, Philippines - In the 2013 elections, party-list groups whose names begin with the letter A or number 1 will no longer have the advantage over the rest.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Friday, June 15, signed Resolution 9467, which allows the conduct of a raffle of accredited partylist groups to determine their order of listing in the official ballots in the May 13, 2013 elections.

This will do away with the previous alphabetical presentation of groups seeking party-list seats.

Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said the resolution is meant to avoid partylist groups jockeying for the first letters of the alphabet or number 1.

The raffle will be held on Dec. 14, or 5 months before the elections, and will involve the following:

• at least three members of Comelec
• partylist group leader
• representatives of media

The poll body will be using a raffle drum and numbered balls. During the raffle, the numbered balls will be drawn as accredited partylist groups are called alphabetically. The numbered balls picked for each group will then correspond to their designated number in the ballot.

Name game

In previous elections, candidates and party-list groups were listed in the ballots alphabetically and starting with number 1. Thus, groups have come up with names and numbers to ensure they appeared on top of the list.

Of the 187 partylist groups listed in the 2010 election ballots, for example, 12 groups had their party names beginning with the number 1, while 103 groups had their acronyms beginning with the letter A.

Some of the more than 200 groups that registered for the 2013 polls followed the same track, as most of them also chose to begin their party names with the number 1:

"Some groups just use these names to jockey for placements at the top of the ballots," Jimenez admitted. - Rappler.com

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