EDITORIAL - Punish election law violators

The Commission on Elections should make good its threat to file charges against a supporter of a senatorial candidate who reportedly harassed a Cebu City election officer if only to teach these supporters a lesson and show that the commission is really serious in exercising its mandate in implementing election laws.

It was reported the other day that a supporter of a senatorial candidate barged into the Comelec Cebu City office last Thursday and harassed Cebu City north district election officer Marchell Sarno for confiscating an oversized campaign material. The supporter, according to the report, wanted the material confiscated by the Comelec employees returned, but Sarno said this could not be because the office will use the material as evidence.

The supporter of the senatorial candidate was way out of hand when he harassed Sarno and the other Comelec employees. They were just doing their task of making sure that campaign materials used by candidates conform to the requirements provided for by our election laws. In the first place, if the supporter only followed the prescribed size for the said campaign material, he would not have had any problems with the Comelec.

The Comelec was not remiss in informing the public and the candidates themselves about simple rules such as common poster areas where candidates can put up campaign materials, prescribed sizes for campaign materials and all the other provisions of our election laws. However, there are still quite a number of violators who ignore such laws.

If Sarno and the Cebu City Comelec office will really file charges against the supporter who harassed them, this would send a message to candidates and their supporters that there are laws to follow when running for a post in government and these laws should be followed not only by the candidates but their supporters as well, and that violators of election laws who harass Comelec employees who are doing their jobs deserve to be punished.