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Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Comelec admits polls in 27 Lanao towns hanging
By Lino Dela Cruz
Iligan Correspondent
MARAWI CITY -- Ten of the scheduled May 26 special elections in the 13 towns of Lanao del Sur were successful but three were held only last Sunday.
The towns of Pualas, Lumba Bayabao, and Butig held their special elections last Sunday instead of Saturday after the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) failed to appear on the scheduled date and were replaced with policemen by the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
Pinoy Votes: Sun.Star Election 2007 Coverage
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Comelec said the reasons for the one day delay include the absence of BEIs, disagreement on the clustering of precincts, and late arrival of election paraphernalia.
The three towns have a total of some 10,000 registered voters.
Even with the success of the special elections in the 13 towns, Comelec said there are still some precincts in Marawi City and in some of the 27 towns of Lanao del Sur, where partial failure of elections was declared, that have yet to conduct their own special elections.
"There is no schedule yet," Efraim Bag-id of the Comelec operations center here said.
In Lanao del Norte, the Board of Canvassers is set to reconvene on Wednesday to decide whether to canvass the three ballot boxes coming from the towns of Kauswagan, Bacolod, and Maigo.
These ballot boxes were earlier reported and confirmed by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to have been forcibly opened.
However, the NBI did not say if the contents of the destroyed ballot boxes were tampered.
The controversial ballot boxes from the three towns of Lanao del Norte will finally put an end to the question on who won the congressional race for the 1st district of the province.
In the final count conducted by the church, non-government organizations, and the National Movement for Free Election-Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (Namfrel-PPCRV), based on their copies of the Certificates of Canvass and Election Returns, the totals showed Iligan City Councilor Vicente Belmonte Jr. with 59,932 votes, Angelique Badelles with 46,600, and Lanao del Norte Governor Imelda Dimaporo 43,403 votes. (Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Cebu. (May 29, 2007 issue)
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