MARAWI CITY—On Monday evening, as the elections wound up here, the sound of gunshots rang through the air.
While for the first time there was no failure of elections in Lanao del Norte, the gunshots reminded election and military officials of the violence that characterized politics in the province.
Col. Glenn Macasero, commanding officer of the Army’s 103rd Brigade, said acts like firing gunshots could be expressions of disgust by politicians unhappy about the voting results.
But it is no excuse, said Macasero. He warned the province’s politicians against firing their guns “or else I will bring down on them the full force of the law.”
The canvassing of votes at the municipal and provincial levels are affected by rising tension among candidates who refuse to accept the voting results.
On Tuesday, provincial election supervisor Vidzfar Amil Julie said municipal election officers have requested that all municipal canvasses be done at the provincial gym here to ensure the security of members of the boards of canvassers.
Julie added that the election officers also requested that transmittal of precinct-level results be done here.
This was the reason most precinct count optical scan machines were delivered to the provincial gym, delaying the canvass process.
As of noon of Tuesday, only five of the province’s 40 precincts have transmitted municipal level results to the provincial board of canvassers. Only half of the other 35 precincts have started transmitting results.
Several members of boards of elections inspectors (BEIs) said that after generating precinct-level results, they stopped short of transmitting results pending their transfer to a secure place.
“We don’t want to put ourselves in danger again. We have had enough of this during the era of manual vote counting,” said one BEI member.
These tales are confirmed by field monitors of the Citizens Coalition for Electoral Reforms in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (C-CARE).
Salic Ibrahim, C-CARE chair, said members of the municipal boards of canvassers were especially concerned about security, as they are the ones who will proclaim winners. Ryan D. Rosauro, Inquirer Mindanao