Both the camps of incumbent Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim and former Mayor Jose “Lito” Atienza Jr. have submitted to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) their respective position papers on whether or not the poll body should continue a recount of the votes cast in last year’s mayoral election.
On May 15, the results of a partial manual recount as reported by Lim’s camp showed the mayor with 65,375 votes against 20,340 for Atienza and 12,427 divided among the other candidates.
No verification yet
The Comelec, however, has yet to affirm the numbers released by Lim’s camp.
The recount was ordered by the Comelec based on the election protest filed by Atienza who claimed fraud in the 2010 automated elections which declared Lim the winner.
It covered only 20 percent of the results from the total number of clustered precincts in the city.
Atienza, however, has asked the Comelec to include the remaining precincts in the recount as he claimed that “the number of votes involved in these precincts is so substantial and material that it would clearly affect the results of the election.”
On the other hand, Lim’s camp has argued that the results of an expanded manual recount would only reflect the results of last year’s election.
In 2010, Lim garnered 395,910 votes while Atienza got 181,094.