THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) is looking to resolve all pending petitions for accreditation of party-list organizations wanting to participate in the May 2022 national and local polls before the the end of August 2024.
In an interview, Comelec Chairman George Garcia said they have imposed a deadline on themselves to rule on all pending party-list cases before September.
"We need to finish everything before the month ends. We must come up with the final list," said Garcia.
"We have no choice but to finish everything that is pending before us," he added.
The poll chief said they had set the deadline ahead of the scheduled raffling of numbers for party-list organizations.
He is referring to the raffling of numbers to be assigned to specific party-lists to be used in their chronological listing in the official ballots.
"We must complete everything before we conduct the raffling of numbers for the party-list organizations," said Garcia.
"By second or third week of September, we will be holding the raffle for the numbers of party-lists in the official ballots," added the official.
So far, Comelec data shows that there are still 29 petitions of party-lists up for resolution.
There are also 17 motions for reconsideration of party-lists waiting to be resolved.
The Comelec said it has dismissed petitions of 120 party-list applicants.
Having been accredited so far as new party-lists are 30 organizations, said Garcia. (HDT/SunStar Philippines)