The Objective of Broadening
People’s Participation in Democratic Governance through Electoral
Reforms
Elections play a major, if not central role in the political life
of the democratic nation. Electoral reforms necessarily play an
important role in enabling the broad participation of the people
in the electoral process and maintaining and enhancing the credibility
of the whole exercise. In turn, political stability provides a major
condition for a sustainable economic and social development.
The development objective includes the broadening of democratic
participation in the electoral process and the enhancement of the
conduct of honest, clean and fair elections in the Philippines.
If achieve, democracy in the Philippines will have been strengthened,
rebellion substantially solved, and the country put on the track
towards the level of political stability required for strong and
continuing development in the era of globalization.
Electoral reforms play a crucial role in consolidating democratic
governance after the events of EDSA II. No less than President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo recognized this when, in her inaugural speech on
January 20, 2001, she pointed out as one of her four priorities
to “change the character of our politics, in order to
create fertile ground for true reforms. Our politics of personality
and patronage must give way to a new politics of party programs
and process of dialogue with the people.” 1
The current Medium-Term Development Program has already incorporated
political and electoral reforms as part of its good governance strategy
and went so far as to specify electoral modernization and review
of the party-list system as subsector priorities.
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1
PGMA's Inaugural Speech as the 14th President of the Republic of the
Philippines, EDSA Shrine, Ortigas Avenue, Jan. 20, 2001.
