HRET dismisses poll protest vs. Kabataan party-list

The House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET) has dismissed the protest filed against Kabataan party-list by You Against Corruption and Poverty (YACAP) party-list over alleged fraud and irregularities in the 2019 elections.

YACAP party-list, through its first nominee Carol Jayne Lopez, alleged massive electoral fraud, anomalies, and irregularities in all the 341 protested clustered precincts in General Santos City, Cotabato, which include misreading of ballots, miscounting of votes, and the unexplained and improper rejection of ballots for YACAP.

These led to a significant decrease in the number of votes for YACAP, Lopez claimed.

Kabataan party-list, for its part, deemed the protest as insufficient in substance since it had supposedly failed to alleged the specific acts or omissions constituting election anomalies.

It added that the Tribunal had no jurisdiction over the case as YACAP had allegedly failed to implead all the indispensable parties to the case.

In its ruling, the HRET stated that Kabataan party-list ranked 51st among the 181 party-list candidates that ran and voted for in the May 2019 elections. On the other hand, YACAP ranked 58th.

Rule 17 of HRET rules notes that election protest can only be filed by the candidates who obtained the second or third highest number of votes.

In this case, HRET said party-list groups AKMA-PTM party-list (52nd) and SBP party-list (53rd) have legal standing to file the poll protest as they obtained the second and third highest number of votes following Kabataan party-list.

"Thus the YACAP party-list does not have legal standing to file the instant election protest and cannot claim to be entitled to any of the reliefs sought in the protest," the ruling, promulgated on March 18, stated.

Kabataan party-list Sarah Elago welcomed the dismissal of the said poll protest. She also thanked those who support them in the course of the protest.

"Nagpapasalamat kami sa ating mga members, kapwa advocates, at abogado sa kanilang pagtindig kasama ng Kabataan party-list sa pagtatanggol ng naipanalo nitong representasyon sa harap ng mga tangkang tanggalin ito sa Kongreso," she said.

(We thank all members, advocates and legal counsel who stood behind us in defending our victory in the 2019 national elections.) —KBK, GMA News