Comelec stops Manila poll recount

MANILA, Philippines -  The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has suspended a recount in connection with the May 10, 2010 mayoral race in Manila, an official said yesterday.

Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said the Comelec opted to defer the recount until the poll body gets hold of five remaining ballot boxes presented by losing Manila mayoralty bet Lito Atienza.

“We have decided to temporarily suspend the recount procedures until such time that we are able to secure the five ballot boxes that are currently in the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal,” he said. The boxes are part of a separate case filed before the HRET.

Sarmiento said the poll body may allow the recount to continue if the HRET agrees that the poll body’s recount committee would undertake the counting at the House of Representatives.

Sarmiento earlier said the recount on the case filed by Atienza against Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim is almost complete, with only five ballot boxes still to be counted.

Under Comelec rules, Atienza must be able to prove the merit of his case in the first 20 percent of 1,000 ballot boxes he placed under protest. In the adopted recount system, the recount committees are set to review and re-tally the concerned ballots and compare them with the election returns produced by the computerized counting machines used in the 2010 elections.

Sarmiento said the poll body gave Atienza’s camp a chance to replace the five ballot boxes so that the process would not be suspended but they refused.

“They refused to replace them. Their camp really wants those five in the HRET,” said Sarmiento.

Atienza claimed that there were massive irregularities in the canvassing and counting of the election results in Manila, wherein Lim garnered 395,910 votes as against his 181,094 votes.