Congress bet fails to stop Lanao special polls

A congressional candidate in Lanao del Sur failed to stop the conduct of special elections in the province scheduled on Thursday, June 3, 2010. Salic Dumarpa, a former National Labor Commission official who is running in the province’s first district, last Monday asked the Supreme Court to stop the electoral exercise due to the alleged illegal clustering of precincts there by the Commission on Elections (Comelec). But the Supreme Court, in a two-page resolution issued Wednesday, did not issue a temporary. Instead, Chief Justice Renato Corona ordered the Comelec to submit within 10 days its comment on Dumarpa’s petition. “The Court did not issue any TRO, therefore the special elections may proceed as scheduled," said Supreme Court administrator and spokesman Jose Midas Marquez. According to Dumarpa’s petition, the special elections should be stopped because the Comelec resolution providing its guidelines and procedures was formulated without prior consultations to candidates and stakeholders and is therefore illegal. Comelec Resolution 8965, which was promulgated on May 28, also revised the clustering of precincts particularly in the town of Masiu. Corona’s resolution said Dumarpa’s petition appears to be sufficient in form and substance, and the allegations contained required an answer from the respondents. It, however, noted that the petition came late. “Therefore, based on the petition filed, it’s not strong enough to merit the issuance of a TRO. The court will have to presume regularity in the issuance of the assailed resolution," Marquez said. On May 21, the Comelec en banc issued a resolution setting the special elections on May 29 in areas where failure of elections was previously declared, including seven towns in Lanao del Sur. Four days later, another resolution was issued by the poll body, this time rescheduling the special polls to June 3, 2010. The affected Lanao del Sur towns include Sultan Domalondong, Lumba Bayabao, Masiu, Tubaran, Lumbaca-Unayan, Marogong and Bayang. All seven municipalities have more than 70, 000 registered voters. - KBK, GMANews.TV