Pre-shaded ballots? Overvotes? File an election protest – Comelec
Comelec Chairman George Garcia —Photo by Marianne Bermudez | Philippine Daily Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines — Allegations of pre-shaded ballots, overvotes, and vote mismatches are “valid grounds” for an election protest, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Erwin Garcia reiterated on Thursday.
That was his reply when asked what election candidates could do if they had such complaints about the elections.
“Those kinds of fraud — pre-shading, overshading, erroneous tabulation, miscomputation — all of these, the Supreme Court said, should have proper remedies in an election protest,” Garcia told reporters in Filipino in an interview.
READ: Comelec rejects Quiboloy camp’s bid for a manual recount of votes
Garcia underscored that election irregularities must be recorded in the minutes of the electoral board members on the day of the elections, and the minutes must be included in the election protest.
He also said that the poll body was expecting a surge in election protests as the deadline for filing in most areas is Thursday. Election protests can be filed until the 10th day after a winning candidate has been proclaimed.
The Comelec has jurisdiction over protests filed for the positions of governor, vice governor, provincial board, city mayor, city vice mayor, and city councilors.
Meanwhile, regional trial courts handle municipal-level positions, and the positions for Congress go to the House Electoral Tribunal and Senate Electoral Tribunal, respectively.
Filing a protest
Filing an election protest is expensive as it will cover a lot of processes, Garcia pointed out. Aside from paying for a deposit fee per ballot box, the protester needs to pay for the committee allowance, he added.
The protester will also shoulder the warehousing fee where the Comelec will store the ballot box that they will manually recount.
“If they will revise ballots, they will hire their own revisors. The revisors need to be efficient and can properly object during the revisions,” Garcia added.
When asked if the expenses would discouraged protesters, Garcia said no. He recalled that many election protests became successful despite the costs and long timeline of the whole process.
He also said that an election protest could be sought in areas where the protesters think that they could gain more votes.
READ: Cebu City mayoral bet Rama files election protest, seeks manual recount
“In general, the protestee would like that because, if you seek protest in all areas, the process will take long and it will cause further delay. So you will delay your own protest,” he said.
Garcia also said resolving the election protests might take one and a half years for positions like governor and mayor, but it would depend on the strategy of the lawyers to shorten the process.
The Comelec received election protests on Thursday, including the ones filed by Cebu City mayoral candidate Michael Rama and San Fernando City, Pampanga mayoral bet Mylyn Pineda-Cayabyab. /atm
