- The 45-day campaign period for local elections officially begins
- Up to 16,376 available positions in the local level are up for grabs
- This includes the first ever elections for the newly created Davao Occidental province
Candidates for President, Vice President, Senator, and Party-list Representative are already well into the half-way mark of their official campaign period but candidates for the local positions have just kick-started their campaign.
According to election rules, candidates who are vying for the 16,376 available positions in the local polls are only allowed to campaign 45 days before election day, unlike candidates in the national level who are given 90 days.
For the May 9, 2016 polls, this means that local candidates could have begun their campaigns on March 25 but due to a ban on politicking on Good Friday, the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) moved the official start of campaigns to March 26.
As enumerated by GMA News, among the more than 16,000-strong positions to be filled in the local level include: the governors, vice governors, and Sangguniang Panlalawigan members of 81 provinces, including the newly created Davao Occidental which is set to elect its very first set of officers, the mayors, vice mayors, and local Sanggunian members of 144 cities and 1,490 municipalities, as well as the regional governor, regional vice governors, and 24 regional assemblymen of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
With the campaign season for all positions now in full swing, ordinary citizens can now expect a more boisterous and lively atmosphere around them as candidates at all levels woo their votes.
However, the COMELEC reiterates that local candidates running under a political party are allowed to spend only P3 per voter under their jurisdiction while independent aspirants can spend up to P5 per voter only.
They are also afforded up to 60 minutes of airtime for television ads, and 90 minutes on radio commercials. Similar to national candidates, they are also required to indicate who paid for these ads and whether they appear on broadcast, print, or online.
Campaign paraphernalia and posters are only allowed to be placed in designated campaign areas; with a strict prohibition for putting the campaign items on trees or plants, public thoroughfares, lamp posts, sidewalks, and overpasses.
All campaigning in all positions will culminate on May 7 or two days before the polls open.
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