Prayer vigil held at Dapitan City Hall grounds over canvassing delays

ZAMBOANGA CITY — More than a thousand residents of Dapitan City were reported to be holding a prayer vigil in front of the City Hall to demand transparency from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in the canvassing of votes.

Police Brigadier General Emmanuel Licup, director of the Police Regional Office in Zamboanga Peninsula (PRO-9), however, said that there was no prayer rally going on at the Dapitan City Hall grounds, but there was “a small group of religious people doing their prayers.”

The prayer vigil was organized by mayoralty candidate Evelyn Uy (PDP Laban) who is trailing behind Rosalina Jaloslos, (Aggrupation of Parties for Prosperity Inc.) by about 2,000 votes.

Isa Uy, the daughter of Evelyn, said the prayer vigil was a call for a “clean and honest election.”

‘Uy’s camp was questioning the delay in the canvassing of ballots in Dapitan City when most of the areas in the province have already completed their vote count.

They said there were 34 polling precincts where the SD cards were supposed to be defective, and these precincts account for 48 percent of the votes cast; hence, they were crucial in determining the winner for the mayoral race.

Uy said the Comelec had stopped the canvassing of votes on Monday night. So far, only results from 18 of the city’s 50 barangays have been completed.

Based on the initial count, Jalosjos was ahead with 13,677 votes. Uy has 11,424 votes.

The Uy camp was also questioning the results in 16 barangays due to defective vote counting machines (VCMs) and SD cards. (Editor: Eden Estopace)