Comelec affirms Lim's victory in 2010 polls

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has affirmed the victory of Manila Mayor Alfredo  Lim over former environment secretary Lito Atienza in the May 2010 elections.

In a seven-page resolution, the Comelec recently denied for lack of merit the motion for reconsideration filed by Atienza and affirmed the Sept. 13 order of the body’s First Division, which dismissed Atienza’s protest.

The Comelec said Atienza “failed to establish the merit or legitimacy of his election protest from his pinpointed pilot precincts.”

“There is no more need to proceed with the recount of the rest of the protested clustered precincts, ” it added.

“Even in the best scenarios for protestant, he (Atienza) would not be able to overcome the lead of the protestee (Lim),” the Comelec said.

The Comelec also said that the election results in the physical count as well as the automated results “do not show any significant difference between the types of application in the counting of the votes in the pilot precincts.”

It added that “variations are very minimal or negligible, so much so that it would not materially affect the result of the election.”

Lim garnered 395,910 votes while Atienza got 181,094 votes. 

Atienza failed to overcome Lim’s lead even in cases where his objections on Lim’s ballots would be sustained and his objections on his ballots would be overruled, the Comelec said.

Earlier, the Comelec junked a petition for disqualification filed by Atienza against Lim, also for lack of merit.

In its resolution onAtienza’s petition, the Comelec said the former mayor failed to present any solid evidence to support his allegations and that “the commission sees no cogent reason to have the instant case submitted for preliminary investigation.”