Ex-VP Binay files electoral protest vs. Kid Peña, demands manual recount

Former Vice President Jejomar Binay has filed an election protest against Makati City Representative Romulo "Kid" Peña Jr., who defeated him in the congressional race for the city's first district.

In his 80-page protest filed before the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal, Binay requested a manual recount of the ballots cast in all 235 clustered precincts in the district, citing irregularities during the conduct of their elections.

Ex-VP Jejomar Binay has filed an election protest vs. Makati 1st District Rep. Kid Peña, citing irregularities in the conduct of the elections in the city. @gmanews pic.twitter.com/EFwczHQ76s

— Erwin Colcol (@erwincolcol) July 16, 2019

He also urged the body to set aside Peña's proclamation as the winning representative of the district and instead declare him as the duly elected and rightful winner in the elections "for having obtained the plurality of the votes cast."

According to Binay, the election results used to proclaim Peña as winner in the elections in the district were not reflective of the actual votes he garnered.

He cited "high incidence of null or misread votes" in the certificates of canvass for Penã, which he said resulted in the omission of votes; and cases of fraud, anomalies, irregularities and statistical improbabilities in several clustered precincts.

Binay alleged that there were cases where the ballots were rejected by the vote counting machines (VCMs) and the voters' receipts did not reflect the actual votes, as well as incidents of vote-buying.

He even accused Peña's followers and watchers of manipulating the precinct proceedings so that voters who were listed disabled or physically unable to prepare their ballots were not allowed to vote with help from personnel in the voting precincts.

He also claimed that the assigned VCMs in most of the clustered precincts malfunctioned, which raises questions as to the "accuracy and quality of the machines to correctly count the votes."

"Definitely, if there were no electoral frauds, anomalies or irregularities in the protested clustered precincts, the Protestant (Binay) would have garnered the most number of votes for the position of Member of the House of Representatives for the First District of Makati City," Binay's petition read.

Binay, however, clarified that he was not filing the petition "out of spite."

"It is a challenge to uncover the true will of the people, the voters of Makati City," he said.

"This election protest is not for me, and it is most certainly not a balm to soothe the ache of an election loss. It is for the right of the people of Makati City to be served by the person they rightfully voted for," he added.

Prior to losing the congressional race in Makati City, Binay also failed in his presidential bid in the 2016 elections.

GMA News Online has reached out to Peña for comment. — BM, GMA News