Comelec urged: Hold special polls in Abra

BANGUED, Abra -- The Commission on Elections was urged by an incumbent congresswoman in Abra to declare a failure of elections in two towns of this province as a result of alleged election violence that marred the recent automated polls.

In a petition filed before the poll body, incumbent Abra Rep. Cecilia Seares-Luna asked Comelec to hold special elections in the towns of Danglas and La Paz after thousands of voters allegedly were not able to vote.

Her counsel, lawyer Edmund Espina, said they have 500 witnesses who can testify against the rampant and systematic acts of violence that occurred in the elections held in La Paz and Danglas municipalities.

Espina said they will submit to Comelec within several days a memorandum attached with the statements and affidavits of their witnesses.

“It will be hard but we try to do our best to get their affidavits attached to the memorandum,” Espina said, adding that their statements will definitely prove to the poll body that violence allegedly took place in these municipalities.

Comelec Commissioners, in an en banc hearing, earlier directed the camp of the former Abra solon to provide the camp of Abra Representative-elect Maria Jocelyn Valera Bernos a copy of their petition after her allies were allegedly involved in the “violence and illegal acts.”

Luna said there were voters who allegedly failed to cast their ballots due to “the arm-twisting and gun-poking" tactics.

In a statement, Luna said that many voters in the two towns were not able to cast their vote so they were disenfranchised, thus, warranting the conduct of special polls.

She noted that among the violent acts committed during the election were the strafing of a vehicle while passing through Barangay Canan in La Paz town, the abduction and detention of her poll watchers and coercion and harassment of teachers who served as Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) preventing them from carrying out their poll duties in the two towns.

Luna alleged there were incidents when voters were dragged in voting precincts “at gunpoint or threats of physical harm” were forced to vote for Bernos.

She said that under threat and intimidation, the BEIs have fed “pre-shaded ballots” and put indelible ink to voters even before the start of the voting hours.