Poll protest vs Bacolod mayor junked

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has junked the electoral protest filed by former mayor Monico Puentevella against Mayor Evelio Leonardia.

Leonardia won the Bacolod City mayoral race against Puentevella by 22,238 votes, the poll body said in a nine-page resolution issued on Aug. 18.

Commissioners Christian Robert Lim and Luie Tito Guia signed the resolution while Commissioner Ma. Rowena Amelia Guazon inhibited from the case.

The Comelec First Division said granting Puentevella’s demand to open the ballot boxes for a manual recount would allow ”fishing expeditions and baseless protests to prosper.”

”Puentevella’s protest is insufficient in form and content as it lacks the required detailed specification of the acts or omissions complained of showing the electoral fraud, anomalies or irregularities in the protested precincts,” the Comelec resolution stated.

In filing the protest, Puentevella said he did not witness the tabulation and computation of the ballots, adding that the proclamation of winners was based on electronically transmitted election results.

“The law itself decrees that the election returns transmitted electronically shall be considered as official election results and used as the basis for the canvassing of votes and the proclamation of a candidate. The protestant’s allegation then cannot be considered as election fraud or irregularity,” the Comelec said.

Unusual and unexplained number of votes and high voter turnout are not indicative of election fraud or irregularities, since these can be validly explained, the poll body added.