|
2025 Philippine House of Representatives elections
The 2025 Philippine House of Representatives elections will be the 37th lower house elections in the Philippines, scheduled to be held on May 12, 2025, within the 2025 Philippine general election. All 317 seats in the House of Representatives will be contested in the election, including one seat for each of the 254 congressional districts in the country and 63 seats representing party-lists apportioned on a nationwide vote. BackgroundIn the 2022 election, parties aligned with the UniTeam Alliance and eventual president Bongbong Marcos secured a supermajority of seats in the House of Representatives of the Philippines.[1] Political observers noted that among those elected to the chamber, most came from "wealthy and influential families", which was associated with the vote-buying incidents observed in the election.[2] Upon the opening of the 19th Congress of the Philippines, Representative Martin Romualdez of Leyte's 1st district, a cousin of President Marcos, was elected as the speaker of the House of Representatives unopposed.[3][4] Media outlets have noted that a number of positions in the house leadership were assigned to representatives related to the Marcos family, including senior deputy majority leader Sandro Marcos, the son of President Marcos, and chair of the accounts committee Yedda Marie Romualdez, the wife of Speaker Romualdez.[5][6] Electoral systemThe Philippines uses parallel voting for its lower house elections. For this election, there are 317 seats in the House of Representatives; 254 of these are district representatives, and 63 are party-list representatives.[7] Philippine law mandates that there should be one party-list representative for every four district representatives. District representatives are elected under the first-past-the-post system from single-member districts. Party-list representatives are elected via the nationwide vote with a 2% election threshold, with a party winning not more than three seats.[8] The party with the most votes usually wins three seats, then the other parties with more than 2% of the vote two seats. At this point, if all of the party-list seats are not filled up, the parties with less than 2% of the vote will win one seat each until all party-list seats are filled up.[9] The electoral system, with the 2% threshold and the three-seat cap, encourage vote splitting; and encourage sectors to up separate party-lists for every sector so as not to waste their vote on just one party.[10] Political parties competing in the party-list election are barred from participating district elections, and vice versa, unless permitted by the Commission on Elections. Party-lists and political parties participating in the district elections may forge coalition deals with one another. RedistrictingIn the Philippines, Congress has the power to create new congressional districts. Congress can either redistrict the entire country within three years after each Philippine census, or create new districts from existing ones piecemeal, although Congress has never redistricted the entire country wholesale since the approval of the 1987 constitution. Congress usually creates a new district once a place reaches the minimum 250,000 population mandated by the constitution.[11] New districts can also be created by creating new provinces and cities; in this case, it also must be approved by the people in a plebiscite in the affected places. Changes from the 18th (previous) CongressThese are the districts, not contested in 2022, created by the 18th Congress that were either signed by then-President Rodrigo Duterte or approved by lapse:
Changes from the 19th Congress
On June 21, 2024, the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) confirmed that there will be 254 congressional districts to be contested in the election and 63 seats apportioned among the party-lists.[7]
Participating partiesIn both chambers of Congress, members are organized into "blocs", akin to parliamentary groups elsewhere. In keeping with the traditions of the Third Philippine Republic which was under a two-party system, there are two main blocs, the majority and minority blocs; this is although the country is now in a multi-party system. Those who voted for the winning speaker are from the majority bloc, while those who did not (if there are more than two candidates for the speakership) will vote amongst themselves on who will be the minority bloc. Those who belong to neither bloc shall be the independent minority bloc. Members can also be from the independent bloc. Each bloc can have members from multiple parties. Only the majority and minority blocs have voting privileges in committees. In the 19th Congress, the majority bloc is aligned with the administration of President Marcos.[1] In congressional districts
In party lists
Retiring and term-limited incumbentsEach representative is limited to three full consecutive terms in office, with voluntary renunciation of the office for any length of time shall not be considered as an interruption in the continuity of his service for the full term for which he was elected. Term-limited48 representatives have been elected three consecutive times in regular elections and are barred from seeking another term in 2025. Marginal seatsElections in congressional districtsThese are the marginal seats that had a winning margin of 5% or less in the 2022 elections, in ascending order via margin:
Party-list electionThe following party-lists won less than 2% of the vote in 2022, and only won one seat each because all of party-list seats have not been filled up by the parties that did win at least 2% of the vote. These are sorted by number of votes in descending order.
Notes
References
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
