[Local Vote] All elections are local — and that makes you powerful

Every election season, in part due to the disparity in how the media covers national and local campaigns, voters get this impression: positions with national constituencies are “bigger” and more important than those that cover “only” specific areas. 

It’s about time we discarded that mindset.  

Maybe when the senators (even party-list representatives) have already won, they seem to exercise more powers than other elected officials. They call investigations, summon officials and private citizens to explain themselves, look into government contracts, determine how much money goes to where and what, and approve some presidential appointments. 

Before they assume that influential post, however, there’s the campaign period, when they are at the mercy of voters and local powers that be. There’s a reason the act is called “courting of votes” — the national candidates have to go to great lengths to earn the locals’ favor. They’re supposed to. 

Allow me to use the word grovel — they should grovel, pay attention to the voters’ concerns and aspirations, even to an excessive degree.  

And why should we expect nothing less from them? 

Because all elections are local. A national vote is garnered from provinces, cities, municipalities. A senatorial candidate (come 2028, presidential and vice presidential candidates will be covered by this conversation) may have been nominated by a national political party, and he may have glossy ads, catchy jingles, viral social media posts, decent preference rating in surveys, but these are not what delivers the vote on election day. 

On polling day, the machinery will run the show. In simpler terms: you cannot ensure the voter who likes you will actually go to the precinct to cast his vote for you. There is a network, a structure, of offline influencers, of community leaders, of political agents — far removed from the national bets that will urge, or make, the voter get on his feet and actually cast his ballot. 

National political parties cannot do that. They exist on paper and have no real organization. Their vote-delivery system is dependent on the local political parties and people’s organizations that they are able to affiliate with in a particular election cycle. 

Local machineries, meanwhile, while fueled by local politicians and leaders, cannot really run without the voters. The voters are the nuts and bolts of the machines. 

As of last count before the 2025 elections, there were only about a dozen national political parties accredited by the Commission on Elections that were active. How many regional, provincial, and city-level political parties? 120 — or 10 times more than the national. What do you think powers up the national parties? 

This is why senatorial aspirants woo your governor and mayor, form alliances with challenger dynasties, recall their ties with your congressmen, and remind you of their supposed roots in or connections to your regions. 

Then there are the party-list organizations, 156 participating in this year’s polls. They too are elected nationally, but, unlike senatorial candidates, actually need only about 400,000 votes to get a seat in the lower chamber of Congress — about 1.2 million votes to get the maximum three seats allowed. 

Where do they get their votes? Whether they are regional parties or sectoral groups, they focus their campaigns on provinces and regions where their nominees have the drawing power. (READ: Pointers from the results of the 2019 Senate, party-list races and 20 winning party-list groups in 2022 got majority of votes from bailiwick regions) 

All elections are local. 

What does that mean to us voters? 

We should not regard these national candidates (and their hangers-on) like royalty who honor us with their presence, their glances, their waves, and their smiles. We put them on the spot, and gauge if they bothered to find out what concerns our families and communities. We need jobs that pay well so we can put enough food on the table. 

We should not endure the insult of being presented with songs, dances, and cruel or misogynist jokes. We ask them  to sit up and listen to us in genuine town halls and conversations. We need well-equipped hospitals, sufficient health insurance coverage, and quality but affordable education. 

We should not afford our local politicians the bragging rights that, by their mere say-so, we will vote for these national candidates. On our behalf, they should make these “senatoriables” tell us in concrete terms how their plans align with addressing our daily woes. We go for weeks without water while our private service provider run away with huge profits. We are resigned to floods entering our homes — homes we leave too early each day to beat the horrendous traffic going to schools or offices. 

Easier said than done, the skeptics would say. In fact, it is. But a difficult start might be what we need to turn things around one election at a time. And starting now is long overdue. (I said this in a briefing for the last elections: To win in 2022, strengthen the local vote.)

We are local. We are the vote. Amid the noise of the campaigns, and in the privacy of our ballots on May 12, let’s assert that power. – Rappler.com