Tingog.com

Incidence of poll fraud may turn out to be “very high” in Lanao del Sur as the process of counting and tallying of votes from the province’s 13 municipalities are being done “away from public view” and against Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) prescribed guidelines, lawyer Carlos Medina, co-convenor of the Legal Network for Truthful Elections told GMANews.TV, late Tuesday night.

Medina, who is in Marawi City with 17 other Lente lawyers, said that he observed that “irregular counting of (Lanao Sur) votes that could open doors to massive vote-padding appears to be a pattern” in the city’s four counting centers – at the People’s Park, the provincial capitol, the Marawi National High School and the Amay Pakpak Elementary School.

Voting results are being written on the tally board and the tally sheets, but watchers no longer see what is written on the Election Return sheets.

According to Newsbreak, the Special Action Group (SAG) that was set up for the elections in Lanao are known to be the same individuals connected to the 2004 ‘Garci’ scandal.

Newsbreak said the ERs from the 13 municipalities are now in the custody of the Comelec’s Special Action Group (SAG) that was formed to oversee the conduct of last Saturday’s polls.

This came as a result of a directive from Rene Sarmiento, the Comelec commissioner in charge of the special elections in the province. Saying that the move was meant to protect the documents from manipulation, Sarmiento ordered Rosalinda Baliquig, acting provincial treasurer, to surrender the ERs to the SAG.

Sarmiento issued the directive Sunday but Newsbreak gathered that Jubiel Surmieda, a division chief at the Comelec’s law department in Manila and member of the SAG, attempted to secure the accountable forms as early as Saturday night.

This created “a little controversy,” Baliquig told Newsbreak, as Surmieda moved without written authorization from Sarmiento. Senior Comelec officials describe Surmieda as part of the “inner circle” of disgraced former Commissioner Virgilio “Garci” Garcillano.

Based on standard procedure, the provincial treasurer is the appointed custodian of the ballots, ERs and certificate of canvass (COC). From the provincial treasurer, the ballots and ERs are given to the municipal treasurers, who then distribute these to the Board of Election Inspectors an hour before voting.

tags: (none)