Political analysts in the Philippines said that Filipino voters consider age in choosing their candidates during elections.
For the election this year, younger senatorial bets may have a slight advantage over their more senior rivals because majority of the electorate are below 35 years old.
They seem to take into consideration the candidates to whom they could relate to, someone who is not into traditional politics, and someone who can introduce change in the government, according to political analysts.
Younger candidates’ idealism may also capture the voters’ attention, over the experience of the older ones.
For a candidate to be qualified to run as a senator, he or she must be a Filipino citizen and at least be 35 years old on Election Day.
This year’s bets are a mixture of young and old, with 52 as the average age.
Greco Belgica is the youngest with four others who are under 40 years old, while 12 of the senatoriables are under 50, and four are already over 70 years old.
The administration backed Liberal Party (LP) has a younger composition with an average age of 49 compared to its orange team rival United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) which has an average age of 55.
Surveys may also show the advantage of younger candidates.
The latest Pulse Asia and Social Weather Station (SWS) survey, among the 15 candidates who have the “statistical chance of winning,” two are in their 30’s; eight in their 40’s; three in their 50’s; two in their 60’s for Pulse Asia; while on SWS one is in their 60’s and one in their 70’s.
