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By MINDANEWS GENERAL SANTOS CITY.–An administration mayoralty aspirant in Maasim town in Sarangani province has asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to immediately nullify the earlier proclamation of his rival due to alleged erroneous transmission of election returns from one of the polling precincts. Defeated Maasim mayoralty candidate Arturo Lawa said on Friday that he

By MINDANEWS KIDAPAWAN CITY.–The personal secretary of a defeated mayoral candidate in Montawal town in Maguindanao has vehemently denied their involvement in the burning of several houses in a barangay which took place on Sunday. Abdul Karim said his employer, Datu Arkhan Matalam, son of a powerful clan in Maguindanao has no private army to

By JONALYN FORTUNO and PAULINE DYCOCO WITH the upcoming special elections in 11 areas, a youth group is urging all sectors to continue monitoring the polls, especially in ensuring that all election returns (ERs) be accounted for. “While these areas are now undergoing or are set to undergo special elections, we call on the public

By CAROLYN ARGUILLAS Mindanews BULUAN, Maguindanao.  – Governor-elect Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu is requesting the National Statistics Office (NSO) to have a special census for Maguindanao. “I want a physical count ng mga tao (of people). One by one,” Mangudadatu said. “Hindi naman ito (This is not about) vengeance,” he told MindaNews late Saturday afternoon in

By MINDANEWS SHARIFF AGUAK , Maguindanao.– If Ismael “Dustin” Veloso Mastura, 39, had a choice, he would be happy running for vice mayor of Sultan Kudarat town. But fate would lead him to run for and win against the 68-year old warlord, Datu Andal Ampatuan, Sr. His uncle Tucao, who would have been proclaimed governor

By MINDANEWS ZAMBOANGA CITY.—With two incidents of armed harassment and zero incident of armed fight, election day was generally peaceful in Sulu, according to the Commission on Elections and the Western Mindanao Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. The Provincial Joint Security Control Center (JSCC) composed of the AFP and the Philippine National

By PAULINE DYCOCO and JONALYN FORTUNO WITH the elections over, poll groups are now bracing themselves for a slew of  poll-related complaints to be filed before the courts. The Legal Network for Truthful Elections (Lente) and the Citizens’ Coalition for ARMM Electoral Reforms (CCARE) are calling on witnesses to come forward and file anonymous complaints

By LEYTE-SAMAR DAILY EXPRESS TACLOBAN CITY.—The Commission on Elections in Eastern Visayas wants special elections held in at least five villages in Samar province where teachers failed to report for poll duty on May 10. The barangays that failed to hold elections are Carolina and San Roque in Matuguinao town, and Mabini, San Antonio and

By CAROLYN O. ARGUILLAS MindaNews SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao. – The Ampatuan patriarch, Datu Andal Ampatuan, Sr., lost his bid to become vice governor of Maguindanao but ten other clan members implicated in the November 23, 2009 massacre, won in Monday’s elections. At least 12 prominent members of the clan are implicated in the massacre, six

MANY Filipinos who cast their votes last Monday say they chose their candidate for president based on the candidate’s platform (45 percent) and personality (46 percent), according to the exit poll done by the Social Weather Stations. In fact, more than half had already decided whom to vote in earlier or February, the survey which

By MINDANEWS KIDAPAWAN CITY.– A winning candidate for the provincial board in Sultan Kudarat and his son were killed when shot by three armed men while they were on their way to the provincial canvassing center in the capital town of Isulan around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, police reports said. Supt. Saiben Akmad, chief of the

The TV5-SWS exit poll  on the Votes for Senators, with partial sample of 35,825 voters from 731 out of 802 sampled voting centers encoded as of 9 p.m.of May 11:

By NORODIN MANALAO Citizens Coalition for ARMM Electoral Reforms COTABATO CITY.— Two unidentified persons killed a school principal on a busy street in this city Thursday morning. The incident happened at around 9 a.m. and was witnessed by sidewalk vendors and bystanders along the said street in Cotabato City.

BY ELLEN TORDESILLAS DESPITE a 75 percent turnout of voters and  80 percent of results known within 48 hours, the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG)  and Halalang Marangal cautioned the public against claims of “success’ by the Commission on Elections. CenPEG’s director for policy studies, Bobby Tuazon, said the  Comelec  should  address  the

BY ELLEN TORDESILLAS A civil society group that had warned of failure of election  with the implementation of an untested nationwide automated elections said they they were  glad to have been proven wrong. The Concerned Citizens Movement, the group that went to the Supreme Court to stop  full automation of the May 10, 2010 elections

By VIOLETA M. GLORIA Mindanews ILIGAN CITY. — It’s all Dimaporos – mother, son and daughter – taking the highest elective posts in Lanao del Norte. Reelected governor is Mohamad Khalid Dimaporo, whose mother and former governor, Imelda Q. Dimaporo has been elected representative of Lanao del Norte’s first district. Khalid’s sister Fatimah Aliah will represent

THE Social Weather Stations is seeking P1 million in moral damages from defeated presidential candidate Sen. Richard Gordon for “debasing” its reputation at home and abroad. The research organization sought the compulsory counterclaim when it answered Gordon’s petition filed earlier before a Quezon City regional trial court to stop the publication of pre-election surveys of

By JONALYN FORTUNO and PAULINE DYCOCO WHILE Monday’s polls have been deemed successful, an election watchdog said the automation failed in at least one area: the transmission of votes. “While the counting is speedy, the transmission is not,” said Roan Libarios of Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE) at a press conference held in Manila