SC: Comelec ruling on Lanao special polls valid

BAGUIO CITY—Three years after the 2010 elections, the Supreme Court sitting en banc last week declared valid the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) decision to proceed with special elections in Lanao del Sur.

Lanao congressional aspirant Salic Dumarpa, a former member of the National Labor Relations Commission, had asked the high court to restrain the Comelec from enforcing its resolution covering the conduct of special polls in seven Lanao del Sur towns.

Dumarpa had a slight lead over Lanao del Sur Rep. Mohammed Hussin Pangandaman, son of former Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman, when the poll body set the special elections on June 3, 2010.

Dumarpa had asked the court to nullify two provisions of the Comelec resolution on reclustering and the creation of special boards of election inspectors because, he said, these were imposed without informing the candidates.

But the high court said in its April 2 ruling that the Comelec issued the resolution “to prevent another occurrence of a failure of elections” in Lanao del Sur.

“Indeed, the special elections held on June 3, 2010, mooted the issues posed by Dumarpa. The opponent of Dumarpa, Hussin Pangandaman, was proclaimed the winner in the first congressional district of Lanao del Sur,” it said. Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon