Final Four: Maguindanao, Lanao Del Sur, Surigao Del Norte, Basilan
After the Kontra Daya report stating that the ARMM elections was fraudulent, it’s no surprise that the final four provinces that have yet to be canvassed belongs to the region of ARMM. Yesterday, there was a statement that a Failure of Election will be declared in Maguindanao, and this coming Friday, the Certificate of Canvass for Lanao Del Sur, Surigao Del Norte, and Basilan will be canvassed.
If Koko Pimentel, or if the unlikely case that Migz Zubiri, can distance themselves from one another, then a Maguindanao Special Election may not be needed. But as of this writing, it looks like the 21 towns of Maguindanao will have a special election on the tentative date of June 20.
This is all of course, speculation at the moment, because even the Comelec can’t agree with itself. Because next Monday, there will be a hearing regarding the Maguindanao election, and then and there they will most likely decide whether or not to proceed with proclaiming Maguindanao a failure of election, thus proceeding to a Special Election. The tentative date for the special elections in Maguindanao will be June 20.
As I’ve said before, a special election, can only favor TU bet Migz Zubiri, since by then, the citizen groups and watchdogs, may be too fatigued to properly guard the votes.
But GO has said that it will block Special Election from taking place in Maguindanao and will go to the Supreme Court if they have to. Although, by calculations, they said that even with Maguindanao, Pimentel will most likely come out on top.
Abalos has said that there was also no basis for the proclamation of local candidates and that this is why the National Board of Canvassers (Comelec) ordered the local candidates to appear before them and bring authentic election documents as proof that they had won in the elections. And if the local candidates fail to show any proof, then the National Board of Canvassers will have to hold the special elections.
This is going to be a good show. Even though the Comelec doesn’t have copies of Municipal Certificates of Canvass or any Statement of Votes, or other election documents, apparently these local candidates will have the necessary documents to prove their legitimacy. Let’s not forget that most of the winning local candidates are incumbents.
I wonder where they would get authentic documents from, considering that Bedol, the provincial supervisor doesn’t even have any himself.
This is turning out to be a good soap opera, but let’s be reminded, we are only seeing this, because of the willingness of many citizens groups and election watchdogs to guard the vote. And that the cheaters were stupid enough to have 19 non administration candidates with zero votes.
This is definitely a botched operation, that The Comelec is now trying to fix with another special election.
Re “considering that Bedol, the provincial supervisor doesn’t even have any himself.”
Didn’t he distribute the certificates away for frauding by his men?
I am very wary of all these shenanigans.
We don’t know anything about the Maguindanao Votes, The Comelec had a hard time the first time around because of so many watchdogs, media, and citizen groups.. so much so that the recanvassing was going to be scrutinized. They couldn’t come up with authentic documents, so they are trying to do a “Special Elections”, such as what happened in the Lanao Special Election in which Sarmiento got caught with his hands in the cookie jar for all the nation to see…
The Comelec won’t issue Bedol a warrant for his arrest, because that would mean they would have to admit their guilt. So Bedol, did his job, but no amount of cheating can produce authentic documents, so he’s in hiding so he doesn’t have to explain the cheating.
The Maguindanao Special Elections is Plan B.