Comelec to start recount of Manila mayoral votes

MANILA, Philippines - Commission on Elections Chairman Sixto Brillantes said yesterday the Comelec will finally start on March 29 the recounting of ballots that were contested by former Manila mayor Lito Atienza, some 10 months after the May 2010 elections.

“We are going to start the recount of protest cases. Recall that the elections were held on May 10.  Up to now, we have not started with any case. But although we started slow, we will likely resolve the 90 pending cases in one and a half years,” he said.

The Comelec will start with the protest case filed by Atienza against Mayor Alfredo Lim, who was proclaimed winner of the 2010 Manila mayoral race.

The poll body ordered Atienza’s lawyers, Romulo Macalintal and Melchor Monsod, to show at least 200 pilot precincts that could “attest and exemplify the frauds or irregularities pleaded in his election protest.”

In doing the recount, the poll body will apply the provisions in its Resolution 9146, which reinstated the manual process as a method in revising contested ballots. The resolution also requires the complainants to prove that their petition is valid and meritorious through 20 percent of the contested ballots.

“We believe that under the automated system, it is difficult to see the deficiency since machines did the counting. So we may be able to dispose all the cases in one and a half years by going only in the pilot 20 percent of the ballots,” he added.

The other cases pending before the Comelec involve the mayoralty seat of Davao City and the gubernatorial races in Laguna and Bulacan.  

 “While we were slow at the beginning, the process will pick up. We hope to finish by 2013 (midterm election),” Brillantes said.