PROVIDING ADDITIONAL RULE FOR THE APPRECIATION OF BALLOTS BY INSERTING A NEW SUB-PARAGRAPH IN SECTION 155 OF THE 1978 ELECTION CODE.

• Number: Presidential Decree No. 1666
• Sections: 4

Preamble

WHEREAS, the Commission on Elections has reported that there are accredited political parties that submitted nominations which omitted or failed to include candidates for certain provincial, city or municipality elective offices;

WHEREAS, under the existing rules for the appreciation of the ballot, when a voter writes the name of a party in the space for party voting, and also writes on the spaces for individual voting the names of candidates from other political parties or of independent candidates, all the votes shall be considered stray and the entire ballot void;

WHEREAS, applying the above rule, when a voter writes the name of a political party in the space for party voting and at the same time writes the names of candidates in the spaces for individual voting corresponding to the positions for which said political party failed or omitted to nominate any candidate, the ballot shall be stray; and

WHEREAS, it is to the best interest of the voters that an additional rule for the appreciation of ballots be provided so as to prevent the invalidation of the ballot of

a voter who votes for other candidates in addition to those nominated by any accredited political party;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution, do hereby order and decree:

Section 1 Additional rule for appreciation of ballots.

SECTION 1. Additional rule for appreciation of ballots. — A new sub-paragraph of Section 155 of the 1978 Election Code to be known as "28-A" is hereby inserted between sub-paragraph 28 and 29 and shall read as follows:

"Sec. 28-A. If a voter has written in the proper space of his ballot the name of the duly accredited political party which omitted or failed to include nominees for provincial, city or municipal elective offices, and at the same time wrote the names of individual candidates in the spaces provided therefor corresponding to positions to which the political party did not nominate candidates, the ballot shall be counted in favor of the candidates nominated by the political party and the candidates whose names were written in the spaces provided for individual voting, even if not belonging to the said political party.

Section 2 Implementation.

SEC. 2. Implementation.—The Commission on Elections shall take the necessary steps to implement this decree.

Section 3 Effectivity.

SEC. 3. Effectivity. — This decree shall take effect immediately.

Done in the City of Manila, this 25th day of January, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and eighty.

(Sgd.) FERDINAND E. MARCOS

President of the Philippines

By the President:

(Sgd.) JOAQUIN T. VENUS, JR.

Presidential Staff Director