due to world war ii, congress was not able to convene until june 1945. president sergio osmeña called for special sessions to convene the 1st congress of the commonwealth of the philippines until elections could be organized. originally, to observe the staggered terms, the eight candidates with the most votes were to serve for eight years, the next eight for four years, and still the next eight for two years. however, several members had died and others were disqualified because they were charged with collaboration with the japanese, so the senate conducted a lottery to determine which senators would serve until 1946 and which would serve until 1947. in the 1946 election, voters elected 16 senators; the first eight candidates with the highest number of votes were to serve until 1951, the next eight were to serve until 1949.