MANILA - Detained Senator Leila de Lima on Sunday criticized the Commission on Election's (Comelec) designation of the administration-aligned Nacionalista Party (NP) as the dominant minority party.

In a statement, De Lima said the Liberal Party (LP) "has every right and reason" to protest the Comelec decision, calling it "both a legal and political anomaly."

De Lima, who used to be an election lawyer, said a Supreme Court ruling states that “the purpose of according dominant status and representation to a minority party is precisely to serve as an effective check on the majority.”

She also cited the Omnibus Election Code, which she said defines the dominant opposition party as a group capable of waging a nationwide campaign that is opposed to the majority party.

"It should not be allied with it," De Lima said.

The NP is allied to the Hugpong ng Pagbabago alliance headed by Davao City mayor and presidential daughter Sara Duterte.

De Lima maintained that the second major political party is not necessarily an opposition or minority party, as in the case of the NP.

"As it is, its present procedure has resulted in the travesty of democracy, where the administration majority parties have become nothing else but more dominant, and the minority opposition more marginalized than ever before," she said.

Two Comelec commissioners have expressed reservations over the poll body's decision to name the NP as the dominant minority party.