Reluya files case vs 2 BEIs

CEBU, Philippines - Seeing an anomaly in the recount, defeated mayoralty candidate Lakambini Reluya filed an administrative complaint against two Board of Election Inspectors of San Fernando, Cebu.

Reluya has a pending election protest before the Regional Trial Court.

This new case stemmed from the recount held at the RTC where Reluya’s camp found that BEIs Aida Soreso and Fedilina Maraveles failed to account “a substantial number of unused half-torn ballots.”

In the 2010 elections, Antonio Canoy was proclaimed the winner in the mayoralty race.

Canoy garnered 15, 329 votes while Reluya only got 14,055 votes or a margin of 1,271 votes.

But during the recount, Reluya said it was found that 391 unused half-torn ballots or about 30 percent of the total 1,318 unused half-torn ballots were missing.

The court ordered the members of the BEIs of clustered precincts 5 and 27 to explain the discrepancy.

Reluya’s complaints states that there were 1,221 unused ballots that were missing from clustered precinct No. 5 of Barangay Poblacion South, which is under the responsibility of Maraveles, while 60 unused ballots were missing from clustered precinct No. 27 in Barangay Panadtaran, which is under Soreso. —MBG (FREEMAN)