both chambers voting separately to confirm the appointment, as the case may be. Later, as stipulated in R.A. No. 6645 approved on December 28, 1987, once a vacancy occurs in the Senate at least 18 months, or in the House of Representatives at least one year, before the next scheduled election, the Commission on Elections, upon receipt of a resolution from the chamber where the vacancy occurred, shall schedule a special election. The special election will then be held not earlier than 45 days nor later than 90 days from the date of the resolution. However, R.A. No. 7166 approved on November 26, 1991, amended parts of R.A. No. 6645. When a vacancy in the House of Representatives occurs at least one year before the expiration of the term, the special election shall be held not earlier than 60 days nor later than 90 days after occurrence of the vacancy. For the Senate, if the vacancy occurs also at least one year before the expiration of the term, the special election shall be held on the day of the next succeeding regular election. With the passage of Republic Act No. 8295 in 1997, if there is only one candidate running for the position, that candidate would be proclaimed as the winner, and an election would no longer be held. This is unlike in regularly scheduled elections where voting would still be held and the candidate has to get one vote in order to be elected. Since the enactment of this law, no special election has seen only one candidate. Not all vacancies that occurred a year before the next regular election resulted in a special election. To save money, the Speaker appoints a caretaker representative from a nearby district. In same cases a caretaker representative was appointed while an election date was considered. As with general elections, special elections are usually scheduled on a Monday. During the Third Republic, special elections were held concurrently with midterm elections. However, special elections held since the 15th Congress are mostly done on Saturdays. In some cases, election days are declared as holidays. Lack of special elections 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. Despite many vacancies occurring well before a year