Comelec orders Kalinga vote recount over gov tiff

TABUK CITY, Kalinga -- The Second Division of the Commission on Elections has ordered recount of votes after it found the post-election protest ‒ filed by Kalinga gubernatorial candidate and former vice governor James Edubba against proclaimed Gov.     Ferdinand Tubban right after the May 13, 2019 elections ‒ has merit and should be considered.
    The Comelec, in memo issued July 13, 2021, ordered continuation of the case and recount of remaining contested clustered precincts.
    Election records and statistics department was directed to print images of the ballots of clustered precinct No. 32080016 for its inclusion in recount proceedings.
    The results showed in pilot-tested recount of certain precincts, Edubba gained a total of 46 votes while Tubban was credited with an additional 17 votes.
    Comelec ruled considering earlier figures, it was Edubba who was now leading the gubernatorial race by 19 votes, which was derived by subtracting the margin of 10 votes and the additional 17 votes gained by Tubban, thus a recount was justified.

Edubba and Tubban were among four candidates for the gubernatorial position of Kalinga during the 2018 midterm elections.

After canvassing of votes, Tubban was proclaimed by the provincial board of canvassers as winning candidate, garnering 39,148 votes while Edubba garnered 39,138 votes where there was a slim margin of only 10 votes.

On May 24, 2019, Edubba, former mayor of Pasil town, filed an election protest, contesting the correctness of the election results in 100 clustered precincts out of a total of 250 clustered precincts in the province where the protested precincts cover all municipalities and a city that include Balbalan, Lubuagan, Pasil, Pinukpuk, Rizal, Tabuk City, Tanudan and Tinglayan in the province.