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A TOTAL
of 15 provinces and cities with six million voters have
yet to be accounted for in the canvassing of the
National Board of Canvassers (NBOC).
“How can
we make a partial proclamation when there are still
almost six million votes to be reckoned with?” asked
poll chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. of the Commission on
Elections (Comelec).
Comelec
records show that certificates of canvass (COCs) from
Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Shariff Kabunsuan, Lanao del
Norte, Sultan Kudarat, and Surigao del Norte have yet to
arrive at the Philippine International Convention
Center, where the national canvassing is going on. There
are a total of 1,877,662 registered voters in these
areas.
Special
elections were conducted in 13 towns in Lanao del Sur,
and in some barangays in Tawi-Tawi, Basilan and Sulu, on
Saturday.
There
are another eight areas where canvassing of COCs have
been deferred for various reasons. These include
Maguindanao, where administration senatorial candidates
reportedly got a clean sweep of the votes, Sulu,
Caloocan City, Taguig-Pateros, Davao del Sur, North
Cotabato, South Cotabato and Muntinlupa City. A total of
3,361,931 voters are registered in these places.
On the
other hand, the COC from
Davao
City
where there are 750,109 registered voters, is set for
canvassing Monday.
The
latest official tally from the NBOC as of 12 noon of
Saturday showed seven candidates from the Genuine
Opposition (GO), three from Team Unity (TU) and two
Independents composing the Magic 12.
Abalos
said election results in
Mindanao remain to be crucial in the present ranking of candidates since there
are more than 300,000 votes “to reckon with” in
Maguindanao, and Shariff Kabunsuan, alone.
Opposition lawyers have charged that children and
students were forced to write the names of TU candidates
on blank ballots before election day, explaining why no
single vote went to GO bets.
Opposition spokesman Adel Tamano said the GO has yet to
decide if it will file a petition calling for special
elections in Maguindanao following the 12-0 votes in
favor of TU.
Team
Unity, on the other hand, railed at the “belligerence
and arrogance” of GO and its lawyers for their nonstop
griping about electoral fraud even in the face of
undisputable evidence that the conduct of elections in
certain areas of Mindanao had been fair, honest and
transparent, and that the rush of votes from
proadministration turfs will eventually send more TU
bets into the win column.
Instead
of bickering nonstop about supposedly massive fraud, GO
should allow the electoral process to get its closure in
Mindanao to pave the way for the smooth transition to
the convening of the 14th Congress, Eastern Samar Gov.
Ben Evardone, TU media director, said.
A
prominent election lawyer at the same time challenged GO
to file charges before the Comelec instead of just
playing up in the media their allegations of widespread
cheating in two provinces in Mindanao, in order to give
the affected election officers the opportunity and
proper venue to defend themselves against such charges.
TU chief
legal counsel Romulo Macalintal said that if GO really
has evidence to back its claims, it should take the
appropriate action before the Comelec in connection with
its allegations of electoral fraud in the provinces of
Sulu, and Maguindanao.
“They
[GO] can file that petition if they want to. No one is
barred from doing that. The problem here is proving
their allegations. It is very easy to file a petition
but the hard part is proving the charges,” Macalintal
said.
Maguindanao’s governor, Datu Andal Ampatuan, his running
mate, Sajid Islam Ampatuan, and members of the
provincial board ran unopposed as administration
candidates.
Only
Pagalungan town had two candidates for mayor out of 22
towns in Maguindanao during the May 14 local elections.
“The political opposition does not exist in the
province, so there was no need to cheat,” the governor
said.
GO
senatorial bet Aquilino Pimentel III protested what he
called “the blatant attempt of the administration
special operators” to rig the results of the senatorial
elections in North and South Cotabato in a plot to
dislodge him from the winners circle.
In a
statement, Pimentel complained that “dagdag-bawas”
operators in the two provinces allegedly tampered with
the election figures to inflate the vote count of TU
senatorial candidate Juan Miguel Zubiri by some 230,000
votes.
But
Pimentel pointed out that alert leaders, watchers and
lawyers of the opposition uncovered the scam after
comparing untampered documents in their possession with
the falsified certificates of canvass submitted to the
Comelec National Board of Canvassers.
Zubiri,
however, lashed back at Pimentel for making the “false,
baseless and irresponsible” claim that the only way he
and other TU bets can barge into the win column is
through poll rigging in
Mindanao and other proadministration strongholds.
Zubiri
said that with the votes in 11 Mindanao provinces, where
he won handily, still waiting to be canvassed by the
Comelec, he expects to land in at least the 11th slot at
the end of the national canvassing, or two rungs higher
than his current ranking in the Monday tally of the
Comelec.
He said
it was only logical for him to overtake Pimentel in the
final Comelec count, given that he even beat the son of
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. right in
their own “hometown” of Cagayan de Oro City and home
region, Northern Mindanao.
--C.
Jimenez, B. Fernandez and R.M. Maitem
*****
Namfrel finishes canvass of 87% of ERs
THE
National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel)
has finished canvassing 87 percent of election returns
(ERs) at its quick count center at La Salle-Greenhills
in
Mandaluyong
City, Namfrel national chairman Edward Go said.
The
quick count body resumed its operations on Monday, after
taking a break during the weekend.
Go said
the poll watchdog is left with only 13 percent of the
ERs from 224,748 precincts for canvassing. He, however,
he refused to confirm if the remaining ERs will affect
the standing of the senatorial candidates occupying the
ninth up to 16th places.
“I don’t
want to speculate kasi hindi ko pa nakikita ang
bagong tally,” he said.
Namfrel,
which is accredited by the Commission on Elections (Comelec)
to do a quick count for the May 14 midterm elections,
has formed a team to accompany the special committee
formed by Comelec to conduct special elections in Lanao
del Sur.
Go said
there are still 500,000 uncanvassed votes from
Maguindanao and the 13 towns in Lanao del Sur.
For his
part, Namfrel secretary-general Eric Alvia said the
special polls in the province had pushed through.
“It had
been chaotic and disorderly but despite these, elections
pushed through. We are now retrieving ERs,” Alvia said.
--C. Mocon |
