A range of factors influence the electoral choices of the voters. More often, the matter of competency falls subject to the candidates’ popularity. Through issues, personal appeal and political parties, the candidates forge an image influential to the voters. While campaign tactics provoke the general public to some extent, arriving at their personal picks may become less than substantive.
However, the beginnings of each candidate may answer how noteworthy he may be. The position or sector to which they previously belonged has been proven to offer that much needed boost in the contest for popularity and media coverage.
Tried and tested?
Most of the senate candidates already have working experience in government, may it be in local government units or in Congress. Having a prior experience in politics may have a beneficial effect on the chances of winning for a candidate.
Based on the Pulse Asia’s Nationwide Survey on Filipinos’ Senatorial Preferences for May 2013 elections, the names that ranked high were the names mostly of re-electionists. Despite this, new faces gradually broke into the list. Even while some may be new to politics, their surnames have helped them gain a strong reputation, to the extent of making it to the top 12 of every pre-election poll, with these new contenders becoming serious competitors of supposed political veterans.
The private sector
It has been the old perception that some are marked for leadership early on in their lives, and if one is not born a leader, there is little he can do to become one. However, a number of years of experience in politics does not always dictate the electoral decisions of some Filipinos.
Since most of the advocacies of candidates from the private sector reflect the welfare of people in a given sector, some voters become hopeful that these candidates are capable of enabling legislation that would not be skewed from experience with government conditions, instead basing promises on private sector demands and expectations. This edge is what candidates donning a background in the private sector capitalize on—an edge that is more often than not effective as well in establishing a credible, reliable, efficient image.
Should a candidate from corporate or an NGO win, he must focus on his duties to the public before returning to the private sector. Certain members of the private sector may have to leave their jobs upon election into office, as mandated by law.
Religious groups
Candidates supporting the Roman Catholic Church on issues that abound the state still get the latter’s support. Archbishop Socrates Villegas once mentioned that the Church is not allowed to endorse candidates; however, it can endorse certain parameters of the candidates without mentioning any specific name. He furthers that the candidates who supported issues such as the RH Law, divorce, euthanasia and the like “should not be elected.” The basis is rooted in the religious sector’s personal beliefs and in its expression of its voice as a concerned citizen’s association.
Senate candidates who have been religious leaders or had religious backgrounds, however, do have the support of the Church for they usually share the same position with regards to these issues. And in a country with the religious making up the majority of the population, the votes of the devout are spared for these candidates in the hopes that they become the Church’s voice in the decisions of the state.
