TACLOBAN CITY- The An Waray party-list is targeting at least 1. 5 million votes for it to secure three seats at the House of Representatives.
Rep. Florencio ‘Bem’ Noel, the party-list first nominee, said that they could achieve their goal by ‘maximizing’ the more than 2 million votes of Eastern Visayas alone.
Aside from Noel, the party bared its nominees who include Mayor Allan Contado of Balangkayan in Eastern Samar as first nominee; Ormoc City Vice Mayor Leo Carmelo ‘Toto’ Locsin as its third nominee; Dr. Jason Alve as its fourth nominee and lawyer Camille Villasin as its fifth nominee.
An Waray started their foray in politics via the party-list system in 2004 and since then managed to secure even two congressional seats.
Noel said that it was always his dream to have three seats in Congress because it will entail more funds for the various programs of the An Waray.
During the 2019 elections, An Waray was able to poll more than 700,000 votes.
Mayor Contado said that aside from securing votes, their mission is to educate the voters about the party-list system.
He said that there is still low understanding of party-list among the people which results to low turnout of voters in the party-list system.
During the 2019 elections, for example he said, out of the more than 338,000 voters in Eastern Samar, only around 150,000 of them cast their votes in the party-list system.
For next year’s balloting, 270 party-lists are to contest for congressional representations.
The party-list is also banking on the votes from all Waraynons not just from all around the country but from other parts of the world.
Locsin, meantime, said that he is honored to be chosen as one of the nominees of the An Waray saying that it has been in service to the people of Ormoc ‘for the longest time’ providing free medicine, scholarships, and livelihood opportunities.
(LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)
