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As we wrote a couple days ago with regards to The Miraculous Maguindanao Vote, there seems to be an attempt to keep the election returns from seeing the light of day. ARMM COMELEC DIRECTOR Rey Sumalipao has kept copies of all 22 election returns in Maquindanao, and has denied NAMFREL access to these important ERs.

The Garci team is indeed deeply embedded in that region, this is including Lintang Bidol who was made Maguindanao’s provincial election supervisor.

However, statements from NAMFREL say that they will not include any of the election returns coming from Maguindanao in the quick counts because of the suspicious nature that will come from these ERs.

In related news,

Carlos Medina, co-convener of the Legal Network for Truthful Elections or Lente, said a public school teacher involved in Maguindanao canvassing disclosed how votes were manipulated in the province to achieve a 12-0 sweep for the TEAM Unity.

“The teacher said that on May 13 evening, election officers from different municipalities in Maguindanao did not sleep. The whole night they filled up the ballots,” Medina said in a press conference.

“The members of the board of election inspectors wrote on the ballots the names of TU bets,” he said, adding they used the signatures and thumbmarks of high school students.

Closing Thoughts

The Maguindanao vote, after all the evidence and analysis are in, may not have been democratic or even held. Actions such as providing a one million peso reward to local officials if they could deliver a 12-0 TEAM Unity sweep, Sumalipao and other officials not providing the election returns, allegations of mass cheating by election officers, as well as using student thumbprints and signatures all add up to an election where a cheating machinery was definitely in play.

As for now, investigations should be held, regional and local election officials should be investigated, COMELEC should be investigated, heck every damn person in the administration should be investigated.

Individuals such as Sumalipao should not have been able to gain another appointment, especially after the ‘Garci’ incident of 2004. Not only should they not have been appointed, but they should have gone to trial and criminal charges filed.

This is not what a democratic election should be about, this is not the voice and the will of The Filipino people, the actions that have taken place in Maguindanao are appalling, disgusting, and should not be tolerated.

I ask for everyone’s vigilance and unending probe into the Maguindanao vote. The votes are still being counted and until all the candidates are proclaimed, the election is not over.

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