Batuhan presses poll case against Abellanosa

HE lost by more than 24,000 votes but Team Rama congressional candidate Aristotle Batuhan still wants the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to investigate Rep.-elect Rodrigo Abellanosa for alleged election irregularities.

In his complaint, Batuhan accused Abellanosa of electioneering and vote-buying which resulted in his landslide victory in the May 13 elections.

“Complainant maintains that respondent must be held accountable and disqualified from office for destroying the very backbone of every responsible democracy, ie., clean, honest and credible election,” Batuhan’s complaint read.

Abellanosa, who will succeed outgoing Rep. Tomas Osmeña of Cebu City’s south district, said in a separate text message that he would welcome Batuhan’s complaint if that was the only way to make him feel better.

In his petition, Batuhan said that Abellanosa distributed on election day, sample ballots designed to look like fans which voters used to cool themselves.

On one side of the fan is a list of names of candidates of the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) including Abellanosa.

Beside the candidate’s name are shaded circles which look like the circles on the official ballot.

The other side of the fan contained data on the outcome of a University of San Carlos (USC) survey which showed that Abellanosa received 64 percent of the nod of the survey respondents compared to about 31 percent for Batuhan.

Batuhan alleged that Abellanosa met with some south district voters four days before the May 13 election and gave fans and P1,000 cash for “snacks.”

Jonalyn Gabito, a watcher for the Kabataan partylist, executed an affidavit to attest that BO-PK fans were distributed to voters who were already inside cluster precinct number 346 of Poblacion Elementary School.

Gabito said she called the attention of the BEIs in order to stop the distribution. Batuhan said in his petition that what Gabito witnessed was also happening in 26 other schools in Cebu City’s south district.

Abellanosa received 124,937 votes over Batuhan’s 99,968 votes to win the city’s south congressional district. Chief of Reporters Doris C. Bongcac