Comelec to hold hearings on failed, postponed polls

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said on Wednesday it will conduct a hearing on whether it will declare failure of elections in some areas where voting was postponed on election day. On May 10, voting was postponed in some precincts in Iloilo, Saranggani, Western Samar, Basilan, and Lanao del Sur due to various reasons. The commission said it would start hearing the cases on Wednesday afternoon. On May 10, the Comelec recommended that elections be declared failures in 11 municipalities in the Visayas and Mindanao because of open hostilities by private militias and, in some cases, members of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) did not show up to supervise the polling precincts. The towns involved were Masiu, Lumba-Bayabao, Lumba-Unayan, Tubaran, Marogong, Bayang, and Sultan Dumalondong in Lanao del Sur; Albarca and Sumisip in Basilan; Guimbal in Iloilo; and Pagsanjan in Samar. The Comelec has 30 days to reschedule elections in those places once the reasons for failure have been remedied. An election is considered a failure when it is not held on scheduled, or when it has been "suspended before the hour fixed by law," according to the Omnibus Election Code. The election may also be suspended, for a number of reasons, even after the voters have cast their ballots, or during preparations and the transmission of the election returns." -Kimberley Jane T. Tan/VS, RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV