After two postponements, the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections on Monday are expected to draw at least 75 percent of the country’s nearly 60 million voters, according to the Commission on Elections (Comelec). Congress postponed the barangay elections from Oct. 31, 2016, to Oct. 23, 2017, and then to May 14 this year, enabling more than 42,000 barangay (village) officials to overstay. FederalismSarmiento said the winners in the barangay elections would, by their sheer numbers, have a “big say” in deciding whether the Philippines would shift to federalism or stay with the presidential system. “Whatever form it will be, these barangay officials will still be there and it is they who will give life, vigor, dynamism to grassroots democracy,” he said. Vote-buying rampantThe barangay elections are nonpartisan, but as in partisan elections vote-buying has been widely reported in the Visayas since the campaign began last Friday.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer May 13, 2018 23:15 UTC