Rama’s election protest moves
The second division of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has elected for technical examination the election protest former Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama filed against Mayor Tomas Osmeña.
The move came through an order dated October 18 signed by Al Parreno, presiding officer of the second division.
Section 2 of Comelec Resolution No. 10200 provides that “The Commission, either sitting en banc or in Division, may, motu propio or upon motion, order the conduct of the technical examination of Election Day Computerized Voters Lists (EDCVL) and Voters Registration Records (VRR) involved in Election Protest Cases filed before it.”
The technical examination is part of the process of an election protest to determine basis to proceed.
During the technical examination, a document examiner will check either through signature identification or handwriting examination the ballots in the 168 precincts Rama is protesting.
Among the precincts included in the protest are those in Barangays Ermita, Camputhaw, Mabolo, Sambag I, T. Padilla, Basak Pardo, Basak San Nicolas, Bulacao, Guadalupe, Inayawan, Calamba, Poblacion Pardo, and Punta Princesa.
As per rule, representatives of the parties in the protest are allowed to observe the proceedings but may not interfere.
Schedule for the examination is yet to be set.
Rama said he is confident of his protest.
“I will not be pursuing if I am not confident. Ang atong protesta buhi og dakong buhi. Ikaduha I am constantly connecting with the lawyers of Bongbong Marcos (vice president Candidate who also files for election protest against elected Vice President Leni Robredo) and also the wife of Bongbong Marcos, Liza Araneta Marcos,” he told reporters.
Supported by 42 barangay captains, Rama filed the protest against Osmeña on May 20 last year.
Osmeña defeated Rama in the mayoralty race in the May 2016 polls. Rama got 233,186 votes while Osmeña got 267,222 votes.
Rama said the results are “statistically highly improbable.”
“We are all victim what really occurred with the Liberal Party and of course with my local opponent group (Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan),” he alleged.
Last May 2 to May 9, Comelec-Cebu City inventoried the ballot boxes at the Senior Citizens Park in the presence of the city’s election supervisors in the North and South Districts, representatives from the City Treasurer’s Office, and lawyers from both parties.
On May 13, the ballot boxes were transported to Manila escorted by at least four law enforcers through the 2GO Travel cargo-passenger vessel for manual recounting on June 13, 2016.