Last May 14, COMELEC conducted the 2018 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) nationwide. According to data from the Election Records and Statistics Department (ERSD) under Director Ester L. Villaflor-Roxas, there are 57,378,380 registered voters for the Barangay Elections; 51 percent or 29,545,282 are women, while 49 percent or 27,833,098 are men.
The same proportion holds true for the SK Elections, with 51 percent or 10,440,834 of the 20,626,220 registered youth voters being female and 49 percent or 10,185,386 being male.
Of the 57 million registered voters, 39,977,516 actually voted in this year's Barangay Elections. Sixty-nine point seventy percent of registered female voters cast their ballots compared to the 69.65 percent turnout of registered male voters.
On the other hand, 13,204,059 of the 20 million registered youth voters participated in this year's SK Elections. Actual voter turnout among registered female youth voters was at 63.80 percent, while among registered male youth voters it was at 64.23 percent.
These statistics show robust women's political participation in the voting process, but the ERSD's sex-disaggregated data on election candidates show that of 91,786 individuals who ran for the position of Punong Barangay, 72,663 or 79 percent being men and 19,123 or only 21 percent were women. There were 663,771 candidates for Barangay Kagawad nationwide, and 465,288 or 70 percent were men while 198,483 or 30 percent were women.
Meanwhile, of the 87,091 candidates who ran for SK Chair, 54,504 or 63 percent were men while 32,857 or 37 percent were women. Men comprised 199,661 or 57 percent of the 350,720 candidates for SK Kagawad, with 151,059 or 43 percent being women.
Moving on to the voting results, 33,413 or 80 percent of the 41,914 newly-elected Punong Barangay officials are men, while 8,501 or 20 percent are women. There are also currently 205,624 newly-elected male Barangay Kagawad officials, which is 70 percent of the total number of 292,855, with the remaining 87,231 or 30 percent being female.
Out of 41,109 elected SK Chairs, 26,519 or 65 percent are male while 14,590 or 35 percent are female. Men comprise 132,381 or 56 percent of the 236,273 newly-elected SK Kagawad officials, with women making up the remaining 103,892 or 44 percent.
It may be surmised from the given data that, while more women actively participate in voting than men, more needs to be done in encouraging women to run for office and promoting gender equality in political representation.
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