Kabataan party-list seeks youth vote to secure 2 seats in Eleksyon 2025

Kabataan party-list group on Monday called on the youth to help it secure at least one million votes to ensure two seats in the House of Representatives in the May 12 elections.

In a statement, lawyer Renee Co, Kabataan party-list national spokesperson and first nominee, noted that young people’s voice in public policy remain marginalized even if the youth population makes up a significant number of registered voters.

“As of 2023, only 6.4% of the legislators in the Philippines are aged 30 and below. Worse, of the youth in Philippine Congress, as in other levels of government, majority hail from political dynasties or are backed by big businesses, often groomed into power to uphold the status quo. Any critical opinion, if ever given by young people, is met with prejudice, ignored and attacked for being too radical,” she said.

“Yet in the end, if policies go wrong, young people bear the brunt of the blame, being judged as lazy, whiny, apathetic and selfish citizens. As the 2025 midterm elections nears its end, we echo this lived lesson: We need youth in all levels of government. We need more young voices for change,” she added.

Co said that since 2007, Kabataan party-list has won a seat in the House of Representatives and has served well in its electoral victories with over 2,700 House measures filed, of which 75 became into laws, including the Free College Education law.

“We have only ever had one youth representative in [every] Congress since 2007. We have seen the progress made in our advocacies with one seat. Imagine what victories can be achieved if we had more,” she said.

“It’s time to make history. We call on young voters to take this chance and rally at least one million votes to ensure more than one genuine youth representative in Congress, With a few weeks left, surveys tell mixed possibilities, but Kabataan for the first time in recent history is projected to gain more than one seat. Let’s make this a reality,” Co added.

Under the party-list law and Supreme Court decisions, a party-list group needs to secure at least 2% of the votes cast in the party-list race to secure one seat in the House of Representatives.

Party-list groups that will breach the 2% mark will get an additional seat proportionate to their vote share, but only the top vote getter in the party-list race will get the maximum three seats.

Party-list groups that won’t breach the 2% threshold can still win one seat, provided that those who do are not yet enough to fill out the 20% of the allocated seats for party-list.

The 20% of the House of Representatives’ membership for party-list groups is worth 63 seats.

Based on Commission on Elections (Comelec) records, 28.79% of the voting-age population or 21.87 million registered voters are Gen Z or those born in 1997 to 2007.

The largest share of the voting population at 34.15% belongs to the 25.94 million millennials, meaning those born in 1981 to 1996.

There are at least 69 million registered voters for the May 12 midterm polls.—AOL, GMA Integrated News

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