THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) has junked the election protest filed against Makati City Mayor Abigail Binay by her closest rival in this year's mayoralty race, Romulo “Kid” Peña Jr.
In a resolution, the Comelec First Division noted that petition was junked for failure to show specific allegations of acts of electoral fraud.
“The Comelec First Division cannot sanction the emergence of question to the integrity of the assumption of a public official without showing that there are causes for such question. These causes must be stated with utmost particularity as to disturb the very results of the elections this Comelec considers sacred,” according to the decision dated September 20.
“Wherefore, premises considered, the instant election protest is hereby dismissed for insufficiency in form and content in accordance with Section 9 (b), in relation to Section 7 (e), Rule 6 of the Comelec Resolution No. 8804,” it furthered.
The three-man panel added that there was no clear evidence that the act of poll fraud and irregularities were committed.
“The enumeration of the acts or omission indicated herein does not show where they happened. The Protestant did not indicate the particular precincts where errors in the scanning of the ballots or appreciation thereof by the vote counting machine took place,” the Comelec said.
The case stemmed on the protest filed by Peña last May, asking for a manual recount of votes in the polling precincts in District 2 of Makati City.
He claimed that the results in the said precincts are not reflective of the actual votes cast because of the presence of poll irregularities.
Under Comelec rules, it may summarily dismiss an election protest on the ground of being insufficient in form and content as required.
“The reasons required by the rule must specifically show how and where the electoral fraud, anomalies or irregularities took place. The Commission First Division is not convinced,” said the decision. (FP/Sunnex)