Comelec stops Dimaporo’s proclamation

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) unanimously stopped yesterday the proclamation of former Rep. Abdullah Dimaporo as the winning candidate in the second congressional district of Lanao del Norte.

The Comelec order was prompted by a petition filed by incumbent Rep. Abdullah Mangotara who told the poll body that he lost to Dimaporo only by a few thousand votes because of alleged cheating and other election irregularities.

The poll body’s resolution stopping Dimaporo’s proclamation was signed by Comelec chairman Alfredo Benipayo and the six other commissioners.

After issuing the order, the commission directed its clerk to immediately set the Mangotara petition for hearing.

The incumbent solon is seeking the annulment of the election results in Sultan Naga Dimaporo (formerly Karomatan), his opponent’s hometown, because of alleged massive irregularities.

He received only 477 votes in the town against Dimaporo’s 22,358, wiping out his lead of more than 18,000 in 12 of the 15 municipalities in his district.

In his petition, Mangotara said the fact that the number of votes cast in at least 37 precincts in Sultan Naga Dimaporo exceeded the number of registered voters is proof enough of the extent of election fraud in the town.

He has witnesses who have executed affidavits attesting to the alleged irregularities.

In his affidavit, gubernatorial candidate Macabangkit Lanto, a former ambassador to Egypt, said election forms and other paraphernalia were distributed to the board of election inspections (BEI) in violation of Comelec rules which require that they be given out only in the morning of May 14.

Khadaffy Monto, a poll watcher, testified that six truckloads of voters numbering about 300 were brought to the Sultan Naga Dimaporo Elementary School where they voted from one precinct to another.

"After voting, they boarded their trucks and sped away toward Barangay Bauyan," he said.

Almaira Daksala, another poll watcher, said the board of election inspectors (BEI) allowed many people to vote for those who boycotted the elections.

Worse, she said in one precinct, the BEI counted 20 unused ballots for Dimaporo and his wife, re-electionist Gov. Imelda Dimaporo.

Mangotara cited other cases of alleged election irregularities.

He said in many barangays, armed followers of the Dimaporos roamed around the voting places and fired gunshots in the air indiscriminately to terrorize voters and election inspectors.

He said many inspectors were forced to falsify the election returns.

In other areas, voting was done in private houses in violation of the Election Code, he added.

He stressed that because of these irregularities, the Comelec should annul the election results in Sultan Naga Dimaporo.