Akbayan Residents’ Motion Social gathering Rep.-elect Chel Diokno
MANILA, Philippines — The Akbayan Residents’ Motion Social gathering, which didn’t land among the many front-runners in pre-election surveys, is main the get together checklist race within the Might 12 midterm elections and is poised to get the utmost three seats within the Home of Representatives.
Akbayan will get a recent three-year time period for its high three nominees led by human rights lawyer Chel Diokno.
Based mostly on partial and unofficial outcomes as of 12:58 p.m. on Tuesday, with 97.2 p.c of election returns transmitted, Akbayan had 2,749,857 votes, or 6.71 p.c of the votes forged for get together checklist teams.
Akbayan ranked 57th within the 2022 elections, when it received solely 236,226, or 0.64 p.c of the votes.
READ: Akbayan expresses gratitude to supporters for over 2M votes
In September, Akbayan crammed within the final seat for the 2022 get together checklist race after the Supreme Courtroom affirmed an earlier Comelec determination to cancel An Waray’s get together checklist registration.
Larger opposition
In a press release on Tuesday, Diokno thanked the outpouring assist for Akbayan.
Within the incoming Congress, he mentioned, opposition lawmakers can have “a louder voice … and we’ll use it to ahead the causes of the marginalized, and to combat for our sovereignty and democracy.”
Akbayan is a pioneer get together checklist group in Congress, first profitable in 1998 and in all succeeding elections besides in 2019.
The final time Akbayan was in a position to safe the utmost three seats was within the 2004 elections, with Etta Rosales, Mario Aguja and Risa Hontiveros serving within the Home.
The group later allied itself with then President Benigno Aquino III and the Liberal Social gathering.
Akbayan is the political base of Hontiveros, the one member of the opposition to win a Senate seat within the 2022 elections.
Assured of seats
Akbayan and 5 different incumbent get together lists are already assured of no less than one seat every out of the 63 get together checklist seats up for grabs.
The others are Duterte Youth (with 2,298,760 votes, or 5.61 p.c); Tingog (1,787,233 votes, or 4.36 p.c); 4PS (1,434,178 votes, or 3.5 p.c); ACT-CIS (1,221,669 votes, or 2.98 p.c), and Ako Bicol, (1,061,175 votes, or 2.59 p.c).
Duterte Youth, ACT-CIS and 4PS had been projected by survey agency Pulse Asia to be among the many the highest performing among the many 155 get together lists within the 2025 elections.
Based mostly on the preliminary outcomes, solely Akbayan, Duterte Youth, Tingog and 4PS are poised to get three seats. ACT-CIS is anticipated to get solely two.
Within the 2022 elections, ACT-CIS, with broadcast journalist Erwin Tulfo as its first nominee, dominated the get together checklist race with getting 2.1 million votes, or 5.7 p.c of the votes forged. It was the one get together checklist that gained three seats.
New get together lists are additionally poised to get represented within the subsequent Congress.
These embody Strong North, which is at the moment at eighth spot (1.84 p.c of the votes), with Abra Rep. Ching Bernos as its first nominee); Trabaho at ninth (1.58 p.c), with Supreme Courtroom lawyer Johanne Monich Bautista as its first nominee); PPP at eleventh (1.39 p.c), whose first nominee Harold James Duterte is a nephew of former President Rodrigo Duterte; Mamamayang Liberal at 14th (1.32 p.c), has former Sen. Leila de Lima as its first nominee, and FPJ Panday Bayanihan at fifteenth (1.29 p.c), with Brian Llamanzares, solely son of Sen. Grace Poe, as its first nominee.
Round 50 get together lists are anticipated to take Home seats within the twentieth Congress, which opens in July.
Purple-tagging sufferer
This yr’s outcomes weren’t nearly as good for the Makabayan bloc as solely two of its affiliated get together checklist—ACT Lecturers (thirty fourth, or 0.85 p.c) and Kabataan (fortieth, or 0.75 p.c)—are anticipated to get seats.
Gabriela might lose its present seat because it solely ranked fifty fifth, with 253,868 votes, or 0.62 p.c of the votes forged.
Bayan Muna, which was among the many hottest get together lists earlier than the Duterte administration, is at a distant 76th, garnering solely 160,369 votes, or 0.39 p.c.
It’s at risk of being delisted by the Comelec and couldn’t take part within the 2028 normal elections for failure to safe a seat up to now two elections—in 2022 and 2025.
In a press release on Tuesday, Bayan Muna blamed its low numbers on the assaults and harassments from the Nationwide Job Power to Finish Native Communist Armed Battle and the navy.
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“The vilification, Purple-tagging, harassment, pretend information, and disinformation campaigns focused towards us solely uncovered the desperation of these in energy to silence the voice of dissent and suppress the need of the marginalized,” it mentioned.—with a repoirt from Inquirer Analysis