Mayoral candidate seeks vote recount to resolve tie

CALAPAN CITY, Philippines—The candidate who tied with his opponent for the mayoral post in the town of San Teodoro but lost in a coin toss to resolve the deadlock is now demanding a recount.

Losing mayoral candidate Salvador Py, through lawyer Romulo Peig, filed an election protest case Friday morning and demanded a recount of votes in a petition filed at office of the clerk of court of Oriental Mindoro’s Regional Trial Court.

Py (Nacionalista Party) and opponent Marvic Feraren (Liberal Party) both got 3,236 votes at the end of the canvassing of votes last May 13. To break the tie, the municipal board of canvassers resorted to the tossing of a coin, which they claimed was also a way of “drawing lots,” a system approved by the Commission of Elections as a means of breaking a tie.

Feraren was declared winner over Py when the coin landed “heads” three times out of five tosses.

Py said he decided to file a protest after watching election lawyer Romeo Macalintal saying on television that the loser in the drawing of lots has still has a right to file a protest and ask for a recount.

Reny Pagilagan, the election officer of San Teodoro, said in an earlier telephone interview that Comelec Resolution 9648 provides for a “drawing of lots” in case of ties.

He said a  member of the municipal board of canvassers, which he chaired, solicited suggestions in an open session on how to break the tie.

“There was no objection to the toss-up of a coin as a way of drawing lots, so we proceeded,” he said, noting that such method had been employed in the past.

Py, however said he only agreed to resolve the tie through a toss of a coin because the local Comelec officer who suggested it was “a person in authority,” referring to Pagilagan.