A constitution was then approved, replacing the Philippine Legislature with the unicameral National Assembly.
It stated that vacancies that occur 10 months before the term expires shall have special elections.
The new government headed by President Corazon Aquino restored the presidential system with a bicameral Congress.
To save money, the Speaker appoints a caretaker representative from a nearby district.
In accordance with current laws, the decision to call a special election to fill permanent vacancies is not mandatory, and is solely at the discretion of Congress, which has received criticism for not quickly acting to fill such vacancies.
[7] Despite many vacancies occurring well before a year from the end of a congressional term, Congress has left many such seats unfilled.
In more extreme examples some even remained vacant for two years or more:[8] Since the country's independence in 1946, no special elections were called during the presidencies of Carlos P. Garcia, Corazon Aquino and Joseph Estrada; the 4th Congress, during the Garcia presidency, notably did not have deaths in the lower house.
During the first half of the presidency of Diosdado Macapagal, and the latter half of the presidencies of Fidel V. Ramos and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and from the beginning of the second presidential term of Ferdinand Marcos in 1969 until his removal from office in 1986, no special elections were called.
To fill the vacancy, a special election was held separately with senators whose terms ended in that year:[10] In 2001, Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo succeeded Joseph Estrada after the 2001 EDSA Revolution, leaving the office of the vice president vacant.
The Commission on Elections ruled that instead of twelve, the electorate will vote for thirteen senators, with the thirteenth-placed candidate serving Guingona's unexpired term of three years.
In Tolentino vs. Comelec, the Supreme Court ruled that the commission did not comply with the requirements of R.A. 6645, nor did the commission "give formal notice that it would proclaim as winner the senatorial candidate receiving the 13th highest number of votes in the special election."
Since R.A. 6645 as amended "charges the voters with knowledge of this statutory notice and Comelec's failure to give the additional notice did not negate the calling of such special election, much less invalidate it", the court dismissed the petition for lack of merit and allowed the result of the election to stand.
[11] There had been four instances in the Fifth Republic where a seat was vacated exactly midway through the senators' term due to election to another office.
In all of those cases, the thirteenth-placed candidate was not given the vacant seat as the voters elected for only twelve senators.
When a vacancy occurs for a party-list representative, the next-ranked nominee from the party replaces his predecessor.
For district representatives, a special election will be held to determine who shall succeed the predecessor.
The 1943 constitution did not provide provisions for holding special elections to fill vacancies in the National Assembly.
Other reasons for holding special elections were to fill new seats created upon the establishment of new provinces (4 instances), and to fill the seats vacated after: a winning candidate was disqualified post-election (2), a representative was expelled from the legislature (1), or a representative was "dropped from the rolls" over a criminal conviction (1).
In the space of 27 years after the war and before Ferdinand Marcos disbanded Congress and assumed dictatorial powers in 1972, a total of 18 special elections were held.
In contrast, since the restoration of Congress in 1987 only 12 special elections have been held in the space of 30 years.
For permanent vacancies in the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (provincial boards), Sangguniang Panlungsod (city councils) of highly urbanized and independent component cities and Sangguniang Bayan (municipal councils) of component municipalities in Metro Manila (currently just Pateros), the president through the Executive Secretary appoints someone from the same political party where the person who caused the vacancy belonged.
If the person who vacated the post did not belong to a political party, the local chief executive (the governor or mayor, as the case may be) appoints upon the recommendation of the sanggunian concerned.
In the Bangsamoro Parliament created via the Bangsamoro Organic Law, a special election may be called if the vacating seat is from an unaffiliated member of parliament, and the vacancy happened at least one year before the next general election.
The United States Congress approved a joint resolution setting the date of the election on not later than April 30, 1946.
The vice presidency, which was vacant after it was restored when a constitutional amendment was approved in a 1984 plebiscite, was also at stake.
Marcos and his running mate, MP from Manila Arturo Tolentino, won their respective elections against Corazon Aquino and Salvador Laurel, but allegations of massive fraud led to the People Power Revolution a couple of weeks later that led to his ouster.
In the official results from COMELEC that were later used by the Batasang Pambansa to proclaim the winners, Marcos and Tolentino won over Aquino and Laurel respectively, while in the unofficial results from NAMFREL, Aquino and Laurel led over Marcos and Tolentino.
The ballots were originally printed with Malolos having a different set of candidates from the rest of the 1st district.