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COMELEC wants more women candidate in barangay polls

An official of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) wants to see more women candidates in the barangay elections.

            “We will strongly advocate for many women to run as barangay chairpersons and barangay councilors,” Commissioner Rowena Guanzon, head of the  the Comelec - Gender and Development (GAD) Committee, said in an interview.

            In the 2013 midterm pools, of the 44,449 total candidates, 36,401 (81.89%) were male while 7,925 (17.82%) were female.

            Of the 17,969 that won, 14,331 (79.75%) were male while 3,580 (19.92%) were female.

            Guanzon believes the village poll is one election where women will have a better chance of running and winning as candidates.

            “This is the only election where the area that you need to go and campaign is small,” said  Guanzon.

            “You will also spend less since you are already known in your community, church... so this is really the election that women have a better chance of running as a candidate,” she added.

            Guanzon also expressed hope that since there are more female voters in the country, they will also be supportive of female candidates.

            “In other countries, they have a so-called women’s vote,”she said.

            During the May 9, 2016 polls, the number of registered female voters was 28,052,138 as compared to the 26,311,706 male registered voters.  -- June 6, 2016