Roxas camp: ARMM's high voter turnout similar to 2004 alleged poll rigging

After raising questions on nullified votes, the camp of vice presidential bet Manuel "Mar" Roxas on Wednesday cast doubts on the "unusually high" voter turnout in clustered precincts at the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). Makati mayor Jejomar Binay, Roxas’ fiercest rival, dominated the turnout in the area, getting almost 100 percent of the votes in at least six precincts in Lanao del Sur, Butch Abad, Liberal party's over-all campaign manager, said in a press conference on Thursday. This observed phenomenon was similar to the 2004 national elections which had been marred by allegations of poll fraud especially in areas in Mindanao, Abad said. In the 2004 elections, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo won against the late actor Fernando Poe Jr (FPJ). "Si FPJ umangal siya noon na maraming tintukoy sa ARMM na nagre-report ng napakataas na percentages ng bumoboto. Sabi niya this was an indication na nagkakaroon ng vote padding or enhancements of the performance of certain candidates," he said. (FPJ complained about the high voting turnout in the ARMM. He said this was an indication of vote padding or enhancements of the performance of certain candidates.) "Parang may ganun na namang pattern sa ARMM. Ito ay alarming trend," Abad added. (It appears that a similar pattern has emerged in the ARMM. This is an alarming trend.) Information technology expert Anton Bonifacio, who was tapped by the Liberal Party to conduct an independent analysis of the certificates of canvass that came from the Commission on Elections, said of all provinces in the ARMM, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, and Sulu were the three provinces that posted the highest voter turnout. Voter turnout in Lanao del Sur was 97 percent while turnout for both Maguindanao and Sulu was both pegged at 98 percent, he said. Bonifacio said "you can make certain conclusions" with the data of high voter turnout given that the national voter turnout was just around 76.32 percent. In at least six clustered precincts in ARMM, the former Makati mayor even secured almost if not all votes, leaving Roxas and all other vice presidential aspirants with no votes. Four of these precincts were in Lanao del Sur: two in Tagoloan II town and one each in the towns of Bumbaranand Malabang. Results in a precinct in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao, and in Tabuan-Lasa in Basilan showed Binay getting 99 and 98 percent of all votes, respectively. [See: Bloc voting on May 10 mostly benefits Noynoy Aquino] Abad addressed critics who pointed out that Roxas might have gotten low votes in the southern Philippine region because of his earlier opposition on the signing of the botched Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) — a pact being pushed by Moro rebels in southern Philippines to gain autonomy over several provinces in Mindanao. "Sabi nila si Roxas kasi nilaban ang MOA-AD pero 'pag tinignan ang results, hindi naman ganun. May ibang province na nanalo si Roxas like Tawi-Tawi. That's not the reasoning that applies," he said. (They said that Roxas had fewer votes because he opposed the MOA-AD but it’s not like that if you examine the results. Roxas won in other provinces like Tawi-Tawi.) Based on latest canvassing results from the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC), Binay and Roxas are neck-and-neck in the vice presidential race — a scenario that manifested early on in several partial and unofficial tallies. With 207 certificates of canvass (COCs) so far counted, Binay leads with 10,916,224 votes and is closely followed by Roxas with 10,745,422. On Wednesday's canvassing, Roxas' camp complained about the non-inclusion of some 2.6 million nullified votes. [See: Aquino, Binay maintain lead in latest tally] Roxas' camp had noted an unusally high incidents of votes getting nullified in the senator’s known bailiwicks, involving some 500,000 nullified votes in Central and Western Visayas. The Comelec has already thumbed down calls by Roxas' camp to count the nullified votes for the vice presidential race. Votes get nullified or are not counted by the counting machines when a voter overvotes or undervotes. Votes are also nullified in case of erroneous shading of ballots. Comelec commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said there was no point in counting an undervote because no oval had been shaded in the first place. Likewise, it would be hard to tell which vice presidential candidate a voter had really intended to vote when during an overvote. [See: Manual count of nullified votes useless, says Comelec] The Comelec and even Binay's lawyer Aquilino Pimentel III, son and namesake of Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr, have advised the camp of Roxas to just file an election protest after proclamation, instead of asking to count nullified votes. - RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV