Harassment, missing names mar recall polls

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY—Complaints of disenfranchisement, harassment and intimidation of voters marred Friday’s special recall elections here as the Commission on Elections (Comelec) concluded a tension-filled recall elections for the mayoral post, which pitted incumbent Lucilo R. Bayron (United Nationalist Alliance) against archrival and former city mayor, Edward S. Hagedorn (Liberal Party).

The independent observer group Legal Network for Truthful Elections (Lente) expressed concern over reports of poll manipulation by partisan political groups and a question on the overall integrity of the voters’ list, noting that many voters were unable to cast their votes.

“Too many voters can’t find their names (in the voters’ list),” lawyer Rona V. Caritos, Lente acting executive director, told Inquirer. Lente is a nationwide nonpartisan network of lawyers and trained volunteers accredited by the poll body.

Caritos said they have received reports of vote-buying, mobilization of “flying voters” to cast votes for a favored candidate, and intervention of barangay officials in the voting precincts.

Officials of some remote villages complained about intimidation by motorcycle riding groups accompanying truckloads of men that reportedly came from Palawan’s southern municipalities.

The polling, reverting to the old manual system, was held at various schools of the city’s 66 villages with over 120,000 registered voters.

Comelec closed the polling booths at 3:30 p.m. and was expected to proclaim the winner on Friday night. Comelec Commissioner Arthur Lim personally flew to Puerto Princesa City to oversee the special elections.

While both camps have accused each other of various poll violations Lente said no formal complaint has been filed by any of them.

In a statement, the camp of Bayron blamed the harassment on the camp of Hagedorn.

Richard Ligad, spokesperson of Bayron, said reports of vote-buying had been attributed to the camp of the former mayor.

“We got hold of stubs and other documents which were distributed to voters specifically designed to verify and match the names appearing in their master lists bearing the names of those registered voters,” said Ligad in the statement.

“These documents were used to verify the people whose votes were bought in favor of Hagedorn,” Ligad said.