‘Failure of ARMM elections to further destabilize country’

ZAMBOANGA CITY — The head of the task force overseeing the orderly conduct of tomorrow’s elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) warned yesterday that a failure of the regional polls could further destabilize the country.

"This is not just an ordinary exercise... because (it) has implications on what is happening now in the country. I’m referring to the national political storm that has been affecting our nation so much," said Brig. Gen. Ben Dolorfino, head of Task Force HOPE (honest, orderly and peaceful elections).

Dolorfino added: "I believe nobody will trust us anymore if we fail again in this political exercise."

At stake in the ARMM elections, the region’s fifth since the autonomous region was set up in 1990, is the "survival of the nation," he said.

The wiretapped conversations between President Arroyo and a Commission on Elections (Comelec) official believed to be Virgilio Garcillano have alluded to cheating in the 2004 national elections in the ARMM, composed of Marawi City, Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Sulu, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi.

To preempt any plot to commit fraud in tomorrow’s polls, the task force has tapped Task Group Intelligence to monitor the movements of stakeholders in the elections.

Dolorfino said the counting of ballots and the transfer of poll documents will be swift to prevent any groups to cheat or rig the election results.

Task Force HOPE has listed 389 areas as possible poll "hot spots" based on the 2004 national elections.

Registered voters numbering 1,159,682 are expected to cast their votes in 8,225 polling precincts tomorrow.

Col. Domingo Tutaan, chief of staff of the Armed Forces Southern Command, said 12,000 soldiers are securing the conduct of the elections across the ARMM.

Ray Sumalipao, the Comelec’s regional director, said Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos has ordered local poll officials to complete the counting of votes within 24 hours.

Sumalipao said everything is ready for tomorrow’s elections which some 100 observers from the United States, New Zealand, Canada, Japan and other Asian countries are monitoring.

Meanwhile, Bin Saleh Sharifa, chief of the Moro National Liberation Front’s Saud-hara National Command, said they have received a faxed directive from Julhambre Misuari, spokesman of jailed former ARMM governor Nur Misuari, urging them to go out and vote.

"It’s very clear in the directive that we have to vote for the official candidate of the Lakas-CMD (Christian, Muslim Democrats), Zaldy Ampatuan," Sharifa told radio station dxMS. — With John Unson and Lino de la Cruz