2001 to 2016: How elections failed in parts of PHL

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has declared a failure of elections in 65 precincts in the Visayas and Mindanao after the May 9 polls.

Under the Omnibus Election Code, the Comelec may declare a failure of elections in areas where violence, terrorism, fraud or other similar acts have prevented the conduct of elections.

The precints where a failure of elections occurred in this year's polls are spread in 14 municipalities in 11 provinces throughout the country, affecting 19,354 registered voters.

The number of affected voters this year is lower than those in the 2004, 2007 and 2010 elections. No data were available for the 2013 polls.

In the 2007 polls, more than 100,000 registered voters were affected.

Recurrent failure of elections

Meanwhile, among the 11 provinces cited by Comelec this year, election failure has been recurrent in four provinces : Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Western Samar, and Sarangani. 

Three of the four provinces — Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, and Western Samar —are on the Philippine National Police’s election watch list for the May 9 polls.

Meanwhile, the 14 municipalities in the provinces of Cebu, Sarangani, Marinduque, Antique, Northern Samar, Western Samar, Negros Occidental, Agusan del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu and Lanao del Sur. 

Lanao del Sur

Nearly half of the total affected voters were from Lanao del Sur, where election failure is a perennial problem. Except in 2013, there has been a poll failure in the province in every election year since 2001.

Last May 9, about 8,900 registered voters in two municipalities in Lanao del Sur were unable to vote.

They were from the municipalities of Binidayan and Tamparan, both of which are on the PNP’s 2016 election watch list.

In Binidayan, elections were not held throughout the municipality due to security concerns.

Local Comelec officials cancelled voting due to alleged demands to transfer polling places without proper authorization. There were also reports of members of the Board of Elections Inspectors allegedly having been harassed.

In Tamparan, 1,047 registered voters in three precincts were unable to vote. Election officers suspended voting after fire broke out at the polling precinct in Dilausan Primary School.

In previous polls, the number of affected voters was higher.

In the 2010 elections, 44,792 registered voters from four towns in Lanao del Sur failed to vote.

In the 2007 polls, 1,461 registered voters failed to cast their ballot.

In the 2004 elections, at least 11, 801 voters from four Lanao del Sur towns were affected while in the the 2001 polls, 15 municipalities were affected.

Several reports of ballot snatching and non-appearance of BEIs were reported every election season in the province.

Maguindanao

On May 9, ballot snatching was reported in a barangay in municipality of Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao, causing 703 registered voters to be unable to vote.

Tense elections have been a staple in the province.

In 2007, the defunct Shariff Kabunsuan province was placed under Comelec control during the special elections held in June that year.

Towns in Shariff Kabunsaan are now part of Maguindano. Elections failed in two of these towns — Matanog and Barira — in 2001. Ballot snatching and intimidation of election officers were cited as cause of delay in polls.

Western Samar

Poll failure occurred at least three times in the province of Western Samar from 2001 to 2016.

In the 2016 election, poll failure was declared in one precinct in Matuguinao, with 285 voters failing to vote.

Armed men rushed inside a polling place and burned the Vote Counting Machine and other election paraphernalia.

In 2004, failure of elections was declared in Calbayog City. About 155 registered voters were not able to vote in a precinct in a remote barangay in the city as members of the Board of Election Inspectors arrived late in the precincts.

In 2010, polls failed in the municipality of Pagsanghan when the wrong set of ballots were sent to a precinct in a barangay. Matuguinao and Calbayog City are on the PNP’s election watch list for the 2016 polls.

Sarangani

In Saranggani, misplaced ballots are a common occurrence. Some 677 registered voters in one precinct in the municipality of Maitum failed to vote after they received ballots from a different town. 

Atty. Duque Kadatuan, Sarangani Provincial Election Supervisor, told GMA News Online on Wednesday that there has been a misdelivery of ballots, not in the entire municipality of Maitum but only in Clustered Precinct Number 3.

Based on Commission on Elections (Comelec) data, the clustered precinct has 677 voters from four precincts: 004A, 004B, 005A and 005B.

In 2010, six precincts in the town of Glan did not hold elections after they received the wrong ballots. Some 847 registered voters failed to vote. — VVP, GMA News

Graphics by Jessica Bartolome