In the Philippines, a nuisance candidate is a legal term for an aspirant candidate for a public office whose certificate of candidacy was not accepted by the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) either motu proprio by the election body itself or upon a verified petition of an interested party.
Contents
Legal definition
Section 69 of the Omnibus Election Code states that a nuisance candidate is someone who has filed a certificate of candidacy with the intention of:
- putting the election process in mockery or disrepute
- causing confusion among voters by the similarity of their name to other registered candidates
- other circumstances or acts which clearly demonstrate that the candidate has no bona fide intention to run for the office for which the certificate of candidacy has been filed and is consequently preventing a faithful determination of the true will of the electorate.
The Law Department of the COMELEC in Manila has the sole authority to declare someone a nuisance candidate. Regional and provincial COMELEC offices has no jurisdiction regarding the matter.
COMELEC also cannot prevent persons from filing certificates of candidacy even if they were declared a nuisance candidate in the past.
List
The following people who filed certificates of candidacy for a public office at the national level (Senator, Vice President, President) were officially declared as nuisance candidates by COMELEC:
Key
Put the election process in mockery or disrepute.
Caused confusion among the voters by the similarity of the names of the registered candidates.
Other circumstances or acts which clearly demonstrate that the candidate has no bona fide intention to run for the office for which the certificate of candidacy has been filed and thus prevents a faithful determination of the true will of the electorate
No Information