Pulse Asia: 7 of 10 Pinoys unaware of party-list system

With three months to go before the Philippines’ first nationwide automated elections, nearly seven out of ten Filipinos remain unaware of the party-list representation in government, an all-time low since 2004, results of a survey released on Wednesday said. "Only three (31 percent) out of 10 Filipinos are aware of the party-list system. It is only in the National Capital Region where a majority (51 percent) of the voters is aware of the party-list system," Pulse Asia said on its website, citing a survey conducted between January 22 and 26. Low level of awareness emerged just four months before the May elections, when voters are expected to choose a party-list group to represent them in the House of Representatives for the fifth time since 1998, the pollster further noted. During that year, party-list representation was introduced in the Philippines’ electoral system for the first time. The current level of awareness of the party-list representation is just about half of the awareness level posted in a survey conducted in April 2007, shortly before the May polls of that year. In that survey, Pulse Asia said nearly three out of five Filipinos knew about the system. "Moreover, the current dismal level of awareness is the lowest that had been recorded across the surveys conducted by Pulse Asia from early 2004," it said. In the latest survey, nine party-list groups garnered support above the two-percent threshold. Of 150 party-list groups listed on the ballot, nine party-list groups managed to get support from more than 2 percent of voters, just enough to gain one House seat. Based on the Supreme Court’s formula, as cited in an April 21, 2009 ruling, 43 party-list groups would gain representation if the elections were held at the time of the survey in January. Five of these party-list groups – Bayan Muna; 1-Aaangat Pilipino; Anak Pawis; Gabriela Women’s Party; and Akbayan Citizens Action Party – will garner the ceiling of three seats in the Lower House. During the time the survey was conducted, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) reviewed the list of qualified presidential and senatorial candidates, bringing the total number of candidates to 10 for the presidency, eight for the vice-presidency, and 62 for the Senate. It also revised the number of qualified party-list groups by a including 37 more, bringing the total number of groups seeking representation to 187. Pulse Asia said it used a ballot that conforms to the Comelec sample prior to the conduct of the January 2010 pre-elections survey. The ballot measured 8 by 29 inches, with the names of the candidates for national posts listed alphabetically as ordered in the official list released by the poll body prior to this survey's field work. Respondents were asked to indicate their preference on the ballot based on the instructions written. The survey used a multistage probability sample of 1,800 representative adults 18 years old and above. A ±2percent error margin at the 95 percent confidence level applied to the survey. Subnational estimates for the geographic areas covered in the survey have the following error margins at 95 percent confidence level: ±6 percent for Metro Manila, ±4 percent for the rest of Luzon and ±5 percent for each of Visayas and Mindanao. Face-to-face field interviews for this project were conducted from January 22 to 26, 2010. - LBG, RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV