Court voids 2019 poll win of Tawi-Tawi mayor

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Zamboanga del Sur, Philippines — A regional trial court (RTC) in Tawi-Tawi province unseated the mayor of Simunul town and installed the candidate who placed third as the rightful winner in the 2019 mayoral election.

In a six-page decision penned by Presiding Judge Grace Tillah of the Sapa-Sapa RTC Branch 26, Benzar Tambut was declared the new mayor of Simunul after the court nullified the victory of Mayor Wasilah Abdurahman, citing “massive fraud, anomalies and other electoral irregularities” in 23 clustered precincts in the town.

The case stemmed from a protest filed by mayoral candidate Tambut, alleging substitute voting and fraud, among others, supposedly carried out by Abdurahman’s camp.

Tillah declared Tambut “the winning candidate with the highest number of plurality of valid votes cast.” The second-ranked candidate, Pirza Bulante was never mentioned in the court decision. During the midterm polls, Abdurahman, who ran under the National Unity Party, garnered 5,857 votes, while Tambut, a candidate of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan, got 1,547.

It further ordered other authorities to enforce, implement and assist in the enforcement and implementation of the decision when the new mayor shall have taken his oath. The decision was issued in Tawi-Tawi on October 5, 2020 following a technical examination of official ballots and other election documents in 23 clustered precincts.

Experts

Bulante, a candidate of the Nationalist People’s Coalition, got 2,887 votes while Alihanapia Albani of the Pederalismo ng Dugong Dakilang Samahan party had 19.In the revised count as part of the poll protest, Abdurahman’s votes even increased to 5,892 while Tambut got 1,559.

Romeo Magcuro, an NBI document examiner, found more than 5,000 “spurious,” Tillah said.

Citing the findings the judge ordered Abdurahman’s tally subtracted by 5,093 votes. Of these, 5,022 were nullified because of thumbmarks which “cannot be attributed to the voters,” 54 involved signatures “written by two persons,” and 17 nonidentical fingerprints.

This reduced Abdurahman’s official tally to 799 votes, way below Tambut’s tally. But votes received by Bulante exceeded Tambut’s revised tally by 1,328 votes.

Mandate

Abdurahman blasted Tillah for siding with Tambut as she denied orchestrating the supposed fraud during the polls. “It is unfortunate that a losing candidate, a third placer at that, is trying to disrupt our march toward economic prosperity,” she said. “I firmly believe that a protestant who does not have the mandate of the people of Simunul cannot overturn the will of the people of Simunul,” she added. Abdurahman has appealed Tillah’s decision in the Commission on Elections, asking the poll body to stop its implementation.