PIMENTEL TO COMELEC: ORDER ELECTION OFFICER
IN LANAO DEL SUR TO CANVASS SENATORIAL ELECTION RETURNS

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino ?Nene? Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today urged the Commission on Elections to order acting Lanao del Sur provincial election supervisor Ibrahim Baget to immediately canvass the senatorial election returns.

Pimentel said the undue delay in the canvassing of votes cast in the senatorial election in Lanao del Sur is creating confusion and fueling suspicion about attempts to rig the results in favor of administration candidates.

?The canvass of local election returns is already done in the province. The delay in the canvass of senatorial election returns only enables the Garci boys in office to manipulate the results,? he said.

Pimentel was referring to Comelec field officials and election operators who are identified with a former elections commissioner involved in the alleged fraud that marred the 2004 presidential contest.

He said Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos and Commissioner-in-charge for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Rene Sarmiento should impose disciplinary sanctions on election field officials in Lanao del Sur and other ARMM provinces who have refused to proceed with the canvass of the senatorial election returns after completing the canvass of votes cast for congressional and local candidates.

Pimentel said the field election officers have reportedly disappeared after the completion of the congressional and local election canvass.

He said the piecemeal method of canvassing in Lanao del Sur is a flagrant violation of the Omnibus Election Code which will give rise to ?dagdag-bawas? operation.