More votes than voters in Lapu Lapu city; protest filed

Sun.Star: AT LEAST 187,000 residents voted for either Arturo Radaza or Norma Patalinghug to serve as mayor of Lapu-Lapu City until 2010, the Patalinghug camp points out in a petition sent to the Commission on Elections (Comelec). Why is that a problem? There are only 148,870 registered voters in the city, the petitioners pointed out. In a supplemental pre-proclamation petition filed last Saturday, Patalinghug asked the Comelec to order a new canvass of the votes cast in Lapu-Lapu City, by a new board of canvassers. She also asked that Election Officer Ann Janette Hu Lamban be replaced as chairperson of the canvassers’ board, and that the Comelec defer the proclamation of winners until the new canvass is completed. “And if such is no longer possible and if the true will of the electorate cannot be determined anymore through this process," Comelec should declare a failure of elections in Lapu-Lapu City, the acting mayor also said. A week after the elections, the results from all 47 towns and six cities in Cebu have been announced and the winners proclaimed, except for three positions: mayor of Bogo town, congressman of the fourth district of Cebu Province and mayor of Lapu-Lapu City. When the canvassing ended last Friday afternoon, Radaza was ahead. But the Patalinghug camp has contested the returns from at least 157 precincts. The proclamation of Lapu-Lapu City’s winners can’t take place until the Comelec in Manila decides whether the contested election returns are valid and should be included in the official count. But Election Officer Lamban said she isn’t sure when the records can be transmitted to Manila. She said she could no longer find her staff yesterday because all four of them reported getting threats. Lamban said she has received several death threats herself, but disregarded them for the sake of completing her election duties. “I received death threats. And now my staff is afraid to show up because they too received threats and the atmosphere is threatening," she told Sun.Star Cebu in a mobile phone interview. Proof The Board of Canvassers, which Lamban heads, earlier denied the Patalinghug camp’s petition to exclude at least 157 election returns because these were “fabricated, falsified or tampered." “They have failed to prove their allegation and it is up to them to prove it (before the Commission)," Lamban said. She described as “a mere alibi" the Patalinghug camp’s claim that there were more votes cast for mayor than the actual registered voters in the city. “That’s just sour-graping on the part of Ma’am Norma and her sons," Lamban added, when asked about the petition for her to be replaced by an “impartial, neutral and unbiased" election officer. The canvassing was only on its second day when the Patalinghug camp began openly questioning Lamban’s integrity as chairperson of the canvassers’ board. In her protest, a copy of which was sent to Sun.Star Cebu, Patalinghug said the Radaza camp “brazenly exploited" the fact that she wasn’t entitled to any copy of the city’s election returns. She alleged, among others, that some of the returns appeared to be tampered with. Others were substituted. As an example, she cited Precinct 592-A, which listed only 198 registered voters but whose election return showed 245 mayoral votes—98 for her and 147 for Radaza. This, Patalinghug said in her protest, is “replicated over and again in many other election returns. So much so that in the final tally…petitioner was credited with around 85,000 votes, while respondent (Radaza) was credited with around 102,000 mayoral votes, bringing the alleged mayoral votes to an incredible and impossible total of 187,000 votes." “This does not even take into consideration the fact that not all the registered voters actually cast their ballots," Patalinghug added.