Performance of the Ummah Party in the Philippines elections in Lanao Del Sur province: 1998 - 2007

Abstract

This study is correlational in nature which aims to examine the relationship between the performance of the Ummah party and the electoral system, campaign strategy and the party organization. This study is limited to only the provincial race of the Ummah party in the elections. Since its creation in 1998, the Ummah party has been actively participating in four consecutive local elections in Lanao del Sur. Its creation was based on the principles of bringing reform to the bureaucracy. The founding of Ummah Party came about as a product of despair, disappointment and hopelessness. It strives to bring about peace and order and save society from poverty, underdevelopment, crimes, unemployment, illiteracy, graft and corruption, poor health and sanitation, moral degeneration to name but a few. A party that is said to be Pro- God, Pro-poor, and Pro-peace. Unfortunately, throughout its electoral involvement, the electoral results have been seemingly unfavourable to the party. By this, the study seeks to find out what are factors that contribute to the declining performance of the Ummah party. With the guidelines of three combined works by Moten (2002), Mutalib (2006) and Ginsberg and Alan (1996), the study has come up with three assumptions. The research is carried out through data collection with interviews to supplement the data collected. From these findings, it has been revealed that the three factors indeed have a relationship with the performance of the Ummah Party that also supports the three assumptions. These three factors indeed are attributable to the unfavourable electoral outcome of the Ummah Party in all four elections.