Protest delays canvass, proclamation in Camarines Sur

PILI, Camarines Sur—-A protest has delayed the canvassing of election returns and proclamation of winning candidates in Camarines Sur such that after nearly two days the provincial Board of Canvassers was  able to proclaim only two winning candidates, both from the first district of the province, shortly before noon Wednesday.

The Board of Canvassers (BOC) has finished canvassing  election returns from 27 of the 35 towns and one city under its supervision but was able to proclaim re-electionist Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr. (Lakas) and Warren Señar as Board Member at 11:25 a.m.

Andaya got 62,125 votes against opponent Nestor de los Reyes (NP) while Señar prevailed over Carlo Batalla (PDP).

The BOC dismissed the petition of lawyers for Rep. Luis Villafuerte, candidate for governor, who asked that the canvassing for governor be deferred.

Villafuerte’s camp had questioned the integrity of the election results because of allegations of votes not tallying and malfunctioning precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines.

BOC Vice Chairman Richard T. Cu said Villafuerte’s concerns were beyond the jurisdiction of the canvassing body and advised the petitioners to forward their concern to the Commission on Election provincial office.

Cu said they were concerned with questions about the composition of the canvassing body and “other concerns inside the canvassing” but they did not deal with questions about the “integrity of votes.”

Naga City as an independent chartered city, whose residents cannot vote for provincial candidates but can run for provincial positions, has a separate BOC which does not canvass provincial votes.