With new candidates and officers, will Left do better in 2022 elections?

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WITH national elections coming up in May 2022, the Left led by the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan Muna) is fielding a new lineup of candidates, and will attempt to breathe life breathe life into its informal alliance with the political opposition and the Liberal Party, which was forged during the 2019 elections. Billing itself as Otso Diretso, the opposition alliance crashed in the balloting, not one senatorial candidate came through. At its ninth national convention and 22nd anniversary last September 26, Bayan Muna unveiled its nominees for the party-list seats in the House of Representatives and its lone candidate for senator in the next year's elections.

"Despite the attacks, [the] vilification campaign and the challenges posed by the pandemic, Bayan Muna vowed to keep and advance its position as a leading party-list group and secure three seats in the May 2022 elections for the upcoming 19th Congress," the party said in a statement.