MANILA— The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has already moved to purge "almost three-fourths" of nearly 600 people who filed certificates of candidacy for president, vice president, senator, and party-list representative for the 2022 polls.

Comelec Education and Information Department Director Elaiza Sabile-David in a webinar Thursday said the Law Department already filed petitions to declare as nuisance around 75 percent of the 569 aspirants for national posts.

JUST IN: Comelec dir. @Atty_Lai says the Law Department has moved to declare as nuisance "almost 3/4" of over 500 aspirants for national posts.

"From what I've heard almost 3/4 will be declared [nuisance]. The Law Department already filed petitions... We're just waiting." pic.twitter.com/TJ1JidWX4M

— J.E. Villaruel (@jauhnetienne) November 4, 2021

"From what I've heard almost 3/4 will be declared [nuisance]. The Law Department already filed petitions declaring these aspirants [nuisance]. We are just waiting for the declaration," Sabile-David said.

Based on the latest Comelec data, 97 filed COCs for president; 28 filed for vice president; 174 filed for senator; and 270 filed for party-list seats.

To compare, these are the number of names in the 2016 ballots:

• 6 out of 130 presidential aspirants
• 6 out of 19 vice presidential aspirants
• 50 out of 172 Senate aspirants
• 115 party-list groups

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez earlier said the final list of names that would be in the 2022 ballots may be finalized in December.

Last week, the Comelec Law Department said it supports the bill imposing a P100,000 fine against those who would be declared nuisance candidates.

• Comelec backs P100k fine, ban vs nuisance bets; watchdog cries foul

Under Comelec's rule of procedure, a candidate can be considered a nuisance if he or she:

• wants to put election process in mockery or disrepute
• wants to cause confusion among voters
• clearly demonstrated to have no bona fide intention to run

• Admission of being placeholder candidate not enough to be nuisance: Comelec spox

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