Negros_Occidental's_at-large_congressional_district
Negros Occidental's at-large congressional district refers to the provincewide electoral district that was used to elect members of Philippine national legislatures in Negros Occidental before 1987.[1]
Negros Occidental first elected its representatives at-large in the 1943 Philippine legislative election for a seat in the National Assembly of the Second Philippine Republic, with a separate district created for Bacolod being a chartered city since 1938.[2][3] Before 1943, the province including its capital city was represented in the national legislatures through its first, second and third districts.[1] The province was also earlier represented in the Malolos Congress of the First Philippine Republic in 1898 by appointed delegates residing in Luzon.[4]
The three districts were restored in Negros Occidental ahead of the 1941 Philippine House of Representatives elections whose elected representatives only began to serve following the dissolution of the Second Republic and the restoration of the Philippine Commonwealth in 1945. An at-large district would not be used in the province again until the 1984 Philippine parliamentary election for seven seats in the Batasang Pambansa which it shared with its highly-urbanized capital city. It became obsolete following the 1987 reapportionment under a new constitution that divided Negros Occidental into six congressional districts and re-established Bacolod's at-large district.[1][5]