Abstract

The present electoral system of the Philippines declares a winning candidate based on total population votes. It would be interesting to find out locally the results of an electoral system as followed by some countries, where the winning candidate was determined from the total number of election district votes. Using the Commission on Election records for the 1992 elections in Quezon City (as pilot area), the winning candidates for representatives, mayor and vice-mayor based on the present system were consistent with those when the “on-barangay-one-vote” scheme was followed. This alternative scheme based the winning candidate on total barangay votes, that is, having the most number of population votes in a certain barangay would garner one barangay vote. It was only for the third district representative wherein another candidate got total barangay votes quite close to that of the winning candidate. However, for councilors, the set of winning candidates for the first and third district using the “one-barangay-one-vote” scheme was different. Because of the heterogeneity of the voting population, economic characteristics had no apparent effect on the electability of candidates. In cognizance of the simplicity of reporting election results from the “one-barangay-one-vote” scheme, this case study could serve as groundwork for affirming the present or proposing an alternative electoral system.