Sandro Marcos bill seeks extra grounds to bar nuisance bets

Presidential son and Ilocos Norte Representative Sandro Marcos has filed a bill seeking to add grounds to disqualify a nuisance candidate and makes the acts of a nuisance bet an election offense.

In filing House Bill 8415, Marcos said, “Nuisance candidates are a bane to any electoral system" as he proposed to impose a P50,000 penalty.

"Usually fielded by rival politicians, their candidacy are intended to cause confusion among the voters by the similarity of the names of the registered candidates," he said.

"More often than not, they have no bona fide intention to run for public office, but they have filed their candidacy anyway simply to derail the political aspiration of opposing politicians," he added.

The Omnibus Election Code defines a nuisance candidate as someone who puts the “election process in mockery or disrepute” and causes “confusion among the voters by the similarity of the names of the registered candidates.”

Marcos proposes to add to the definition someone who files a Certificate of Candidacy “to obtain money, profit, or any other consideration.”

“Whether they are running for money, profit or any other consideration or not, their mere participation in the electoral race prevent a faithful determination of the true will of the electorate. In effect, they put the election process in mockery or disrepute, especially so if they accidentally win,” Marcos explained.

The lawmaker seeks the imposition of a P50,000 fine on anyone found to be a nuisance candidate.

“For our vibrant democracy to further flourish, we need to restore the sanctity of the ballot,” Marcos added.—With Llanesca Panti/LDF, GMA Integrated News