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Saturday, May 08, 2004
15T excess ballots found in Davao City
By Aurea A. Gerundio
DAVAO CITY -- More than 15 thousand ballots were found to be in excess from the delivered ballots by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for Davao City.
Conrado Lapido, chief of the City Treasurer's Office Real Property Tax division, said an excess of 15,202 ballots has been noted from the delivered ballots and elections returns, which were picked up from the Davao International Airport (DIA) Thursday afternoon.
As of press time, however, Lapido was still correcting the total number of registered voters per district. Davao City has 722,260 registered voters, plus the 10,443 Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) assigned in all 3,481 polling precincts
He said that although Comelec has sent the final list of the total number of registered voters per district, it has to be checked for any "excess" ballot.
"We will burn the excess ballots in the presence of the witnesses," Lapido said.
While the serial numbers on the first and last page of the bundled official ballots were being inspected by a CTO employee, an unnumbered excess ballot was noticed from a bundle of ballots for the second district.
Lapido showed a copy of the additional instructions regarding excess ballots, signed by Commissioner Mehol Sadain, stating that: "The official ballots shall be recorded and documented by jotting down their serial numbers for ready reference, and thereafter, the excess ballots shall be destroyed by the treasurers in the presence of all observers."
After sorting all the ballots and election returns, assigned teams from the CTO will deliver on Saturday the ballot boxes and election paraphernalia to the satellite centers. Board of election inspectors (BEIs) will claim these on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Comelec 11 director Lirio Joquiño said BEIs who are not registered in the precinct they are serving could still cast their votes as long as they are registered voters of that district.
"If they are registered in the third district and they are serving in the second district, then they cannot cast their votes at the precinct where they are serving," he added.
Joquiño said the Omnibus Election Code provides that official ballots were printed for distribution at a ratio of one ballot per voter and additional three ballots per precinct.
The additional three ballots, Joquiño said, will be for the BEIs.
The inspection was made in the presence of representatives from different political parties in Davao City.
A total of 151 bundles or 747,905 official ballots were delivered. Fifty-nine bundles or 291,112 ballots were labeled for the first district, 51 bundles or 254,820 ballots for the second district and 41 bundles or 201,973 ballots for the third district, according to Lapido.
Go vote
Meanwhile, Comelec 11 Commissioner Rex Borra urged registered voters of Mindanao to "go out and vote wisely" on Monday.
Borra also urged the Mindanao electorate to ensure that they are included in the Computerized List of Voters (CVL), and not wait for voters Ids, which could no longer be distributed for lack of time.
He called on the public to be more vigilant and keep a close watch on possible election-related irregularities such as vote-buying; flying voters; bribery and others.
"The Comelec cannot do it alone, kailangang tumulong ang taongbayan sa pamahalaan para matigil ang ganitong anomalya," he said.
(May 8, 2004 issue)
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