Atienza vs. Lim starts
tests on poll automation
THE return bout between Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim and former mayor Lito Atienza is set to get the ball rolling on numerous protest cases filed at the Commission on Elections.
The Comelec First Division, in a two-page order dated July 5, gave due course to Atienza’s petition questioning the results of the mayoral race in the country’s capital.
"This can actually serve as a test case for the resolution of other protest cases pending before the Comelec," said Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal, a member of the Comelec’s First Division,
Atienza, in a protest filed May 17, said there were massive irregularities and errors in the canvassing and counting of votes.
Atienza garnered 181,094 votes against Lim’s 395,910.
The July 5 order said, "The protestant has enumerated the protested precincts in his petition and has substantially specified the alleged acts or omissions constituting electoral frauds, anomalies and irregularities that were supposedly committed therein, and the same are serious enough to necessitate the opening of the ballot boxes to resolve the issues raised in the petition."
The Atienza petition will be the first protest case to be handled by the poll body after the automated election system (AES) was first used in the country.
The introduction of the AES has led to the adoption of new poll protest rules, where the appreciation of the official paper ballots will be done along with that of the digital images.
"Since we are automated now, you have to look at the digital image. That’s part of the revision, looking at the compact flash cards containing the digital images of the ballots," explained Larrazabal.
Larrazabal said the order sets the collection and retrieval of all the ballot boxes being protested by Atienza but not after the latter has paid fees amounting to "millions,"
He said all the 1,441 ballot boxes will then be deposited with the Comelec head office in Intramuros, Manila.
The poll official added that a hearing will be set afterward in a bid to set the details of the recount that would be conducted.
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