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Sunday, May 27, 2007
Violence mars Lanao Sur polls
By Bong Garcia
ZAMBOANGA CITY -- Scattered violence plagued special elections held in Southern Mindanao Saturday, preventing polling in at least two towns, officials said.
A soldier guarding a polling station was wounded when a clash erupted between government peace-keeping forces and gunmen believed to have ties with politicians in the town of Pualas, Lanao del Sur, barely an hour after the special elections started Saturday in the said province.
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While no one was killed in the 13 towns where the special elections were to be held, special elections in the towns of Butig and Lumba Bayabao were suspended due to threat of a riot and clustering problems, said Commission on Elections (Comelec) spokesman James Jimenez.
The clash at the polling station erupted around 8 a.m. when policemen backed by Army troops arrived in the outskirt village of Pualas to check the reported harassment of voters by "partisan" gunmen, said Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm) Police Director Joel Goltiao.
Goltiao said the gunmen, who tried to disrupt the conduct of the special elections, fled following the timely arrival of the government peace-keeping forces in the area.
In Masiu town, an unidentified gunman fired a grenade launcher but caused no casualties in a traditional sign of appreciation for soldiers arriving to guard polling precincts, Goltiao said.
Gunfire greeted the opening of the special elections in the towns of Tugaya, Masiu, Pualas, Kapai and Marawi City.
Seven cases of indiscriminate firings were reported including a mortar shell explosion in Masiu town at about 8 a.m. but no one was hurt or killed.
In Marawi City, the residence Hadji Fatima Halima, an election assistant, was attacked by unknown armed men. No one was reported hurt or killed in the incident.
About 2,000 soldiers and 500 regional police commandos were deployed to Lanao del Sur province to secure the special elections, elections commissioner Rene Sarmiento said.
Sarmiento, the commissioner-in-charge in Lanao del Sur where special elections were held, said while there were cases of violence, it did not affect the conduct of the political exercise in some areas.
Elections were postponed in Butig (with 8,564 voters), in Barangay Maribo in
Lumbabayabao (with 9,174 voters) and in Pualas (with 6,185 registered voters). The elections in those three areas will push through on Sunday.
He said in Butig the elections did not push through after the members of the board of election inspectors (BEIs) refused to serve while in Maribo, Lumbabayabao, the threat of violence prevented the conduct of the elections.
In Pualas, Sarmiento said problem in the clustering of precincts caused the postponement of the elections.
Despite the problems, Sarmiento said the elections were generally peaceful.
Sarmiento suspended the elections after the BEIs refused to serve.
Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos said counting would not be held in the precinct level but will be done in the provincial level.
Despite the tight monitoring of election watchdogs, irregularities remained rampant in many areas.
In Kapai, Tita De Villa of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) and Edward Go of the National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) witnessed blatant cheating and riot during the election.
Volunteers from PPCRV and Namfrel were barred from the polling precincts for two-and-a-half hours into the polls.
Minor election violations were noted such as vote-buying, distribution of sample ballots and bringing of campaign paraphernalia to the polling places.
The Namfrel and PPCRV representative witnessed a voter who was allowed to vote three times and some people who were using a minor to vote.
In Masiu, a vote buyer was giving out envelopes with P20 inside and a sheet of paper bearing a candidate's name.
Meanwhile, the tabulation of results from another southern province, Maguindanao, remained suspended because of opposition allegations that ballots were "manufactured" to show administration candidates winning in the Senate race. Maguindanao has more than 300,000 voters.
An exit poll showed the opposition winning a majority of the 12 Senate positions, but President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's allies say they won in most of the 220 districts in 81 provinces represented in the House of Representatives.
In all, more than 87,000 candidates ran for about 17,000 congressional, provincial, municipal, and city posts.
Allegations of electoral fraud also marred the 2004 presidential election, when votes from Maguindanao and other provinces in a Muslim autonomous region went to Arroyo.
Arroyo has denied conspiring to rig the vote, but the allegations fueled two impeachment bids against her that were blocked by her allies in the House.(With reports from MSN/AP/Sunnex)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star General Santos. (May 27, 2007 issue)
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