Tsunami alert triggers low voter turnout in Cagayan special polls

TUGUEGARAO CITY - The tsunami alert in the coastal towns of Cagayan province last Friday has been blamed for the low turnout of voters in the special elections for the province's second district congressman. Lawyer Ederlino Tabilas, election regional supervisor, said low voter turnout is normal in special polls but the one last Friday was aggravated by the tsunami scare. “It has a factor in the low turnout as voters converged to evacuation sites in the coastal towns," he said. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) raised the tsunami alert level in coastal towns around the country last Friday following the devastating earthquake that hit Japan on the same day. Thousands are feared dead in Japan as a result of the tsunami there that was triggered by the quake. Aside from the tsunami scare, Tabilas said many students and workers in the 12 towns were the special elections were being held were not able to vote because they were studying and working in towns not covered by the polls. With 10 of the 12 towns already canvassed, Lakas-Kampi bet Baby Aline Vargas-Alfonso, daughter of the late Rep. Florencio Vargas, was proclaimed winner on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. The second district congressional seat was declared vacant when the elder Vargas died on July 22 last year due to a complicated illness. Vargas-Alfonso garnered 69,461 votes while former Cagayan Gov. Edgar Lara of the Liberal Party got 26,582 votes in the 10 towns canvassed. “Even if the board of canvassers will add the votes from the two remaining towns, it would not affect the results as only 18,000 voters have been registered in Rizal and Calayan island-town," Tabilas said. In his press statement, Lara conceded defeat to Alfonso, saying that he offered himself to serve but the majority of his constituents did not vote for him. Senior Superintendent Mao Aplasca, Cagayan police director, said the elections were “very peaceful" as no election-related violence was reported. - KBK, GMA News