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Friday, December 16, 2005
Many Mandaue ballots set aside; only 1 person filled them up: Loren
Former senator Loren Legarda yesterday said initial revision of contested ballots shows she was robbed of her votes in Mandaue City during the last elections.
Legarda, who lost to Noli de Castro in the vice presidential race last year, said many ballots from Mandaue were being set aside because it seemed to show only one person wrote the votes.
The Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, has started the recount of election returns that are included in Legarda’s protest.
“There were many objections. Many ballots have been put aside because it appears only one person did the voting,” Legarda said in a radio dyLA interview.
But Mandaue City Election Officer Ferdinand Gujilde expressed surprise at the allegation, saying Legarda had election watchers at the precinct level and lawyers at the canvassing of votes.
If the allegation is true, Legarda’s watchers and lawyers should have raised the matter at their level.
Gujilde also noted minutes of the counting showed no objections from Legarda’s watchers that would support her allegation.
Also, he said Legarda did not specify the precincts where cheating allegedly took place.
“It would have been better if she specified the precinct number and the barangay,” he said, adding that before he could categorically comment on Legarda’s allegation, he must see the ballots himself.
Cebu is one of the provinces that Legarda said she was cheated.
Legarda pointed in the same radio interview that she placed number one in Cebu when she ran for senator in 1998, while de Castro, her former colleague at broadcasting company ABS-CBN, only placed 13th in Cebu in the 2001 senatorial race. (LPN)
(December 16, 2005 issue)
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