By GENEVIEVE CANTOR
Correspondent
A CITIZENS’ group calling itself the City Electoral Council was launched yesterday with the aim of making voters understand the importance of elections and their right of suffrage.
The multisectoral group was formed in response to the call of local religious leaders for active and meaningful citizens’ participation in the electoral process, said Charlito Manlupig, overall chairman of the City Electoral Council.
Manlupig told the Mediakonek forum at the Cagayan de Oro Press Club yesterday that the council is composed of representatives of various organization such as the business, cooperative academic sectors, NGOs and other civil society groups.
Manlupig said the groups decided to come together to form the inter-faith and inter-cultural Citizens’ Electoral Council with a commitment to pursue clean, honest, and meaningful elections.
He said the Council would also demand accountability in governance as it works to reach out to voters so that they would make informed decisions in their choice of candidates.
This, said Manlupig, would be done by the Council by facilitating the creation of spaces for electoral education or “circles of discernment” down to local churches, parishes, barangays, and other different organizations.
He said the City Electoral Council has also set a criteria in the selection of candidates. These are conscience, competence, compassion, commitment, and “companionship.”
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