Comelec: Special polls in Bulacan, Basilan, Lanao Sur ‘generally peaceful’

Special elections held in parts of Bulacan, Basilan and Lanao del Sur on Saturday were “generally peaceful" according to the Commission on Elections (Comelec), a GMA News report said. In the first district of Bulacan, where voters cast their votes for House representative, no major glitches and election-related violent incidents were recorded during Saturday’s elections, a local Comelec official said. “Peaceful and successful ang special elections. Walang failure, dahil lahat ng presinto ay nag-function," Bulacan provincial election supervisor Sabino Mejarito said Saturday. (The special elections were peaceful and successful. There were no failures, as all precincts functioned.) The Bulacan poll official however said that the election for congressman had a low turnout, with only a few of the 331,639 registered voters in the district going to the polling places to vote. “Wala tayong magagawa kung ayaw bumoto ng tao," he said. (We can’t do anything if people don’t want to vote.) Mejarito even added that some of the voters opted to just attend to their farmlands than to cast their votes.
Voters from Bulacan’s first district were not able to cast their votes last May 10 after the Supreme Court nullified the creation of a separate district for Malolos City. The formerly separate sets of congressional candidates from Malolos City and the province’s first district — composed of Hagonoy, Calumpit, Pulilan, Bulacan and Paombong towns — are now have to vie for a single post in the special polls. The candidates who were supposed to run for the congressional seat in Malolos City were Francisco Aniag (Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino), Francisco Cruz (independent), three-term Malolos City Mayor Danilo Domingo (Liberal Party), and Tomas Valencia (independent). (See: Special polls in Bulacan, Basilan, Lanao Sur reset anew) On the other hand, the original candidates who were running in the first district were former Agrarian Reform secretary Roberto Pagdanganan (Nacionalista Party) and incumbent representative Marivic Sy-Alvarado (Lakas-Kampi). Violence in Basilan, Lanao Sur In the southern Philippine provinces of Basilan and Lanao del Sur, meanwhile, violent incidents were recorded during the special polls. According to a GMA News report, gunshots were fired in Lumbatan town in Basilan and a precinct in Lanao del Sur, although no one was reported hurt in these incidents. The Comelec had declared a failure of elections last May 10 in several areas in Basilan and Lanao del Sur due to a number of violent incidents. Last June, special elections were already conducted in the first batch of areas in Lanao del Sur (seven towns) and Basilan (Al-Barka and Maluson town). The Comelec tapped lawyers and police trainees in these special elections as teachers refused to sit as Board of Election Inspectors. (See: Special polls in parts of Bulacan, Basilan, Lanao Sur moved to Oct) Some 80,000 voters are expected to cast their votes throughout the entire course of the special elections.—With Andreo C. Calonzo/JV, GMANews.TV