PAGALUNGAN, MAGUINDANAO Suara Bangsamoro Party list today said that a 12-0 turn out will never be possible in the Municipality of Pagalungan, Maguindanao where 38 ballot boxes from eight barangays are yet to be opened.
To prove this claim, Suara Bangsamoro urges the COMELEC to secure the ballot boxes and start its canvassing immediately.
Pagalungan in Maguindanao became controversial when members of the Board of Election Inspectors here refused to transport 38 ballot boxes from the Sangguniang Bayan of Pagalungan to the municipality of Shariff Aguak, the venue of the provincial canvassing, as the municipal canvassing in Sangguniang Bayan is not yet done.
According to a member of the BEI, they were instructed by the Municipal Election Officer last May 11 to deliver the ballot boxes to the Sangguniang Bayan for the municipal canvassing. However, on the day of the election, Elisa Gasmin, Municipal Election Officer, suddenly ordered them to transport the ballot boxes in four private vans outside the Sangguniang Bayan.
“They refused to give the ballot boxes to deliver to Shariff Aguak because the vans according to them are not the official vehicles of the COMELEC and there was no document shown to them as proof that the directive of transferring the ballot boxes is also official,” Zaynab Ampatuan, National Chairperson of Suara Bangsamoro said.
The proclamation of local candidates was already done even if the 38 ballot boxes are still unopened with 190 election returns.
According to Suara Bangsamoro, the Commission on Elections should get hold of the ballot boxes immediately so that the teachers will be relieved of their election duties.
“The members of the BEI in Pagalungan have been guarding the ballot boxes inside the Sangguniang Bayan of Pagalungan for ten days already and up to this date, no election officer from the COMELEC is replying to their request to secure the ballot boxes,” Ampatuan said.
She added that these BEIs have already abandoned their other responsibilities in their families and in school to safeguard the ballot boxes.
“They have been safekeeping the ballot boxes day and night relying to the support of the community for their daily consumption,” Ampatuan said. #
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2007 Elections
