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Election officials found nothing wrong with poll
documents from Maguindanao, the Commission on Elections said
Wednesday.
“A lot of these documents are
clean,” Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said.
Jimenez was referring to the
certificates of canvass (COCs) presented by 21 municipal election
officers who appeared before the Comelec fact-finding team holding a
hearing in General Santos City on poll anomalies in Maguindanao.
Jimenez said the presentation of
the documents boosts the Comelec’s decision not to declare a
failure of election in Maguindanao.
He said only the election officer
of South Upi town was not present at the hearing in General Santos
City.
“As far as failure of elections
is concerned, it doesn’t look like we’re gonna declare a failure
of elections anymore. We do have proof now that elections did take
place [in Maguindanao],” Jimenez said.
He said Comelec Chairman Benjamin
Abalos and Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer, members of the fact-finding
committee, and lawyers representing opposition and administration
candidates had finished examining the documents.
An ABS-CBN News Channel report
said majority of the documents submitted by the election officers
were Copy No. 2, which are raw tally sheets posted in the canvassing
area.
The election officers were
supposed to submit Copy No. 4, which should have been in the
possession of Lintang Bedol, the provincial election supervisor.
The election officers explained
that they submitted their Copy No. 4 to Bedol on May 28. Bedol had
said that the COCs in his possession were stolen from his office in
Sharif Aguak.
Bedol was summoned by the Comelec
en banc to Manila to explain the discrepancies in the documents.
Special elections held in Barira,
Shariff Kabunsuan, Wednesday were peaceful in general, according to
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao police director Chief Supt.
Joel Goltiao.
“We also have not received any
report of failure of elections in any poll precinct here,” Goltiao
said in an interview.
Comelec special poll officer for
Barira Helen Flores said they need “a day or two” to complete
the tabulation.
Flores described the voters’
turnout as “very satisfactory.” Barira has over 11,000
registered voters.
No elections were held in the
town on May 14 after supporters of reelectionist Mayor Alexander
Tomawis prevented the distribution of poll materials to certain
members of the municipal election inspectors, claiming affinity with
other mayoral candidates.
The municipality is a former
stronghold of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front stronghold.
Goltiao said special polls in
other parts of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao were also
peaceful and orderly based on reports from his police field
commanders.
Besides Barira, special elections
were also held in Kabuntalan in Shariff Kabunsuan; Sumisip and
Akbar towns in Basilan; and Tandubas in Tawi-Tawi.
--ABS-CBN Interactive and PNA
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