Puentevella files polls protest, seeks manual votes count

Pamilya Magbinuligay Kita Para sa Kauswagan(MKK) candidates for the top positions – defeated mayoralty candidate and outgoing Mayor Monico O. Puentevella; congressional candidate Jude Thaddeus Sayson and vice mayoralty candidate Vladimir Gonzalez have sought a manual counting of all the votes casts in their respective post in Bacolod City last May 9, 2016 polls.

Puentevella and Gonzalez filed their election protest before the Commission on Elections – Central Office in Intramuros, Manila last Friday while Sayson will have five days to file an election protest before the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunalin Batasan Complex, Quezon City.

The three candidates who did not make it during the last election have suspected that the automated election was tainted with fraud wherein a large number of more or less 40,000 voters who came to their respective polling precincts, did not cast their votes either for the three top posts.

Their lawyer Atty. Joseph Ray P. Gumabon presented the unusual similarities in the number of voters who did not vote for Mayor, Congressman, and Vice Mayor using a 1:2:3 pattern.

There were 274,541 registered voters in the City of Bacolod and the valid votes cast for the three top posts were 235,641 votes.

The votes cast for the specific position: for Mayor – 221,677 votes; Congressman – 207, 688 votes and Vice Mayor – 194, 971 votes.

The voters who failed to vote for Mayor were 13, 964; Congressman – 27, 953 and for Vice Mayor – 40, 670.

The difference of those who voted for Mayor but did not vote for Vice Mayor was 26, 706 votes.

They cited an example in one precinct in Taculing, Tangub and Villamonte using a 1:2:3 pattern.

In Taculing, for the position of Mayor, there were 758 votes cast; 1,471 votes for Congressman and 2,250 votes for Vice Mayor.

In Tangub, there were 734 votes for Mayor; 1,474 for Congressman and 2,214 votes for Vice Mayor.