The Election Law

SEC. 392. Title of chapter.-This chapter shall be known as the Election Law; and in the absence of provision to the contrary all elections for public officers in the Philippine Islands shall be conducted in conformity with its requirements.

[2600; 2657-489.]

HISTORY.

1. In its essential details, this law (Act No. 1582, as amended) is a counterpart of the ballot laws almost universally adopted within comparatively recent times in the United States, and is generally called by textwriters the Australian ballot law (Gardiner vs. Romulo, 26 Phil. 521, 550).

2. The Australian Ballot System is said to have been the conception of Francis S. Dutton, member of the Legislature of South Australia from 1851 to 1865. The elections act of 1857-58 embodied his idea of the secret ballot, and is the basis of the system now generally in force in the United States as well as in England and upon the continent of Europe. The measure, though first agitated in South Australia, first became a law in Victoria in 1856. It was adopted in Tasmania and New South Wales in 1858, by New Zealand in 1870, and later by Queensland and West Australia. On May 30, 1872, the English Ballot Act (Statutes 35 and 36 Victoria, ch. 33) was passed by the English Commons. It contains the salient features of the South Australian act, modified and adapted to new conditions. Following its adoption by the mother country came the introduction of the system in British Columbia in 1873; in the province of Ontario, March 24, 1874; in Canada, May 26, 1874; in the province of Quebec, February 23, 1875; in Nova Scotia, May 6, 1875; in the Northwest Territories, December 18, 1885, and in Manitoba, May 28, 1886.

The European countries which have followed England in this reform are Belgium, which adopted the English system somewhat simplified on July 9, 1877, and Luxemburg in 1879, while in Austria, Italy and Norway laws providing for the secrecy of the ballot are in force, resembling in many respects the Australian system.

In the United States, the first States to adopt the Australian ballot system were Massachussetts, Indiana, Wisconsin and Montana.

The successful operation of the system as enacted in these States, has led to its general adoption by the different States, and it is now common to almost every State of the Union. (McCrary, 500–501.)

3. Municipal government was first temporarily provided for in the Islands after American occupation by General Orders No. 43, series of 1899, promulgated by the Commander of the military forces of the United States in occupation of the Islands. Subsequently, the Military Governor of the Philippine Islands issued General Orders No. 40, series of 1900, more or less formally and permanently establishing municipalites in the Philippine Islands. This order was based upon the report of a board constituted by the Military Governor to formulate and report a plan of municipal government, of which Board the late Chief Justice Arellano was chairman. A portion of this report is as follows:

"For the first time the Philippine people are to exercise the right of suffrage in the election of municipal officers—a right only slightly restricted by conditions which have been imposed for the purpose of rewarding as well as encouraging the people of their just and natural aspirations to become educated, and worthy to enjoy all the benefits of civilization."

4. In response to a public petition, Baliwag, in May, 1899, became the first town to hold an election under American supervision. Four Cavite municipalities followed suit. (Malcolm, The Government of the Philippines, p. 199; Le Roy, The American in the Philippines, Vol. II, pp. 68, 283, 284.)

5. Act No. 1582, entitled "The Election Law," was enacted by the Philippine Commission on January 9, 1907. After a series of amendments, the Act was embodied in the Administrative Code of 1916 (Act No. 2657) as Chapter 20, and later in the Administrative Code of 1917 (Act No. 2711) as Chapter 18. The Administrative Codes were prepared by the Code Committee created by Act No. 1941. Mr. Thomas A. Street, Member of this Committee, and now Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, was mainly responsible for the scientific revision of our political laws, as these are now embodied in the Administrative Code of 1917. Chapter 18 of this Code, as amended by Act No. 3030 which was approved March 9, 1922, now constitutes the Philippine Election Law.

NATURE AND SOURCE.

1. The right to vote is a political right or privilege to be given or withheld at the exercise of the law making power of the sovereignty. It is not a natural right of the citizen, but a franchise dependent upon law, by which it must be conferred to permit its exercise. It can emanate only from the people, either in their sovereign statement of the organic law or through legislative enactment which they have

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