Dimaporo town voted 13-0 for PPC

LANAO DEL NORTE - The controversial town of Sultan Naga Dimaporo, where the dead, the birds and the crocodiles "voted," as one candidate alleged, delivered a 13-0 vote in favor of the administration’s People Power Coalition (PPC).

Official tabulations of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) showed that PPC candidates swept the towns of Sultan Naga Dimaporo, Nanungan and Poonapiagapo.

"This is also the result of President Arroyo’s visit to Sultan Naga Dimaporo before the elections," said the town’s mayor-elect Mutalib Dimaporo, scion of the family that has dominated Lanao del Norte politics in the past four decades.

The Dimaporo family also won Lanao del Norte’s second congressional district seat as well as the gubernatorial post.

Former Gov. Abdullah Dimaporo edged out Rep. Abdullah Mangotara with 50,496 votes versus the latter’s 45,000, or a difference of 4,996 votes.

Re-electionist Gov. Imelda Dimaporo, for her part, garnered 76,722 votes over Constancio Pepito’s 53,849 votes, or a margin of 22,873 votes.

The Comelec tally excludes the town of Pantar which will hold a special election on May 30, and at least three barangays in Nunungan where special polls are scheduled on May 26.

Abdullah Dimaporo, who got a lead of 22,182 votes in Sultan Naga Dimaporo town, said the municipal election was very peaceful. His rivals, he said, have so far failed to produce evidence of fraud.

Dimaporo said their leadership in the province and in Sultan Naga Dimaporo in the past four decades has been accepted by townsfolk who are 60 percent Christian and the rest, Muslim.

"It is not surprising that they are 100 percent for us," Abdullah said.