The summer knows

COTABATO CITY – A congressional candidate in Shariff Kabunsuan has asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to look into reports that local members of the opposition are “tinkering” on still uncanvassed election results from the province.

Results of the May 14 gubernatorial and congressional race in Shariff Kabunsuan have not been canvassed yet due to the absence of a duly constituted provincial board of canvassers.

Bai Sandra Sema, candidate of Lakas-Christian, Muslim Democrats for the congressional seat in Shariff Kabunsuan, said her lawyers have gathered sufficient evidence to prove that the votes she got in some areas have been “shaved” and added to the tally of the votes her rival has garnered.

Sema, wife of Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema, told reporters here that in one of the towns in the province, her rival garnered a score so “statistically improbable,” much higher than the number of the registered voters in the municipality.

 Sema said her lawyers will petition the Comelec to exclude the results of the congressional contest from areas where they have proof there was cheating during the May 14 polls.

“We will exhaust all legal means to prevent the inclusion in the tabulations of the results for the congressional race in Shariff Kabunsuan of all election returns that are highly questionable,’ he said.

Lawyer Rey Sumalipao, the election director of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), told Catholic station dxMS here the other day their central office has designated Josslyn de Mesa of the legal department of Comelec’s central office, to act as chairman of the Shariff Kabunsuan board of canvassers.