Would the United States electoral college system work in the Philippines?
Former University of the Philippines professor-turned-congressman Ron Salo of Kabayan party-list says this won’t work.
"I seriously doubt that the US-style electoral college system will work in the Philippines," Salo said.
The lawyer-solon said his doubt is based on the dissimilar systems of government between the US and the Philippines.
"The US is composed of federated states which have varying population sizes…This is not the case of the Philippines. We are not composed of federated states, but one entire state."
The electoral college designates a varying number electoral votes per state, which are tallied in favor of the presidential candidate who won that state via the ballots cast. In the case of the this year’s presidential election between President Donald Trump and challenger former Vice President Joe Biden, the one who will get 270 or more electoral votes will win the White House.
"Some states like California and New York have huge voters, while others like Hawaii and Alaska have fewer voters. Thus, the US-style electoral college is meant to equalize this disparity to make sure that states with huge numbers of voters will not primarily dictate the outcome of the election," explained Salo.
"Therefore, such system would be inappropriate to apply to the Philippines," he said.
There is also the question of whether or not Filipinos can accept an elected President who did not win the popular vote, or the candidate with the most votes tallied nationally. The Philippines, like most democratic states, elects its leaders via popular vote.
Trump (in 2016) and George W. Bush (2000) are the two most recent examples of US presidents who won via electoral college but lost in the popular vote.
Another key difference between the US and the Philippines is that the US follows a two party system (Republican against Democrat) while the Philippines has a multi-party system.
Salo said this makes no difference in an electoral college system.
"It doesn’t really matter whether you have a two-party or a multi-party system because ultimately, whoever wins (in a state) will get the entire electoral college votes (of that state)."
Continuing with his line of thought, Salo noted that a possible "improvement" to the current Philippine electoral process would be the imposition of a two-party system.
"We may adopt a two-party system in order to avoid having a President elected by a minority," he said.
"Or even with a multi-party system, we can require that the winning President should be elected by the majority of voters. Otherwise, there would be a runoff election of the top two candidates," he said.
Filipinos will elect President Duterte’s successor in the next national and local election in May 2022.