Very Dirty Leyte Barangay Elections

Obnoxious. That is what a large number of the people of Leyte describe their own Barangay Elections this October 2013.

People of Leyte are calling upon The Honorable, The Chairman, The Commission on Elections to correct the situation, with the best effort that The Honorable, The Commission can give to the poor, hapless people of Leyte Province. An example of the use of fraud was in Palompon, Leyte where a candidate for the post of Barangay Chairman, Edwin Fuentes, hauled residents of far-flung areas to register and vote in Bgy. Tinago, Palompon, Leyte. Some of Edwin Fuentes' candidates for councilor won but he himself, despite his flying voters, could not win over the lead of his opponent.

The beautiful town of Palompon, Leyte where many unpleasant election fraud cases happened

This is also the same story told by the Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE). The executive director of LENTE, Atty. Rona Ann Caritos told ABS-CBN News Channel program Top Story the 2013 Barangay Elections candidates' attitude and behavior this time was much worse than in the 2010 elections. Her organization reported negative findings about the Barangay elections in Leyte Province.

On the day of the elections itself, LENTE's Atty. Caritos in the ANC program, disclosed to the public that especially in Leyte, flying voters, double voting, and "ghost" voters made the 2013 Barangay Elections dirty. Atty. Caritos declared that, "We received a lot of reports of candidates campaigning on the day of elections, their candidates giving flyers and pamphlets."

In the ANC report, Caritos highlighted the problem regarding flying voters. She claimed, "A lot of people were not able to vote because someone already voted in their name."

Caritos admonished public sector election agencies to strictly implement the biometrics law in the next elections to solve the problem. She said that there is nothing that can be done regarding the attitude of candidates. That for the 2016 elections, all voters must be required to have their biometrics taken. With the biometrics law, the problem with flying voters, ghost voters, double voters will be eliminated.

LENTE says that more accountability with reference to election law violators is needed. And that, if there will be barangay elections in 2016, it is calling for more accountability, for more law violators to be punished. Caritos further said that what is prevailing is the violation of election law with impunity. The candidates and followers violate the law left and right without any compunction.

Caritos enjoined the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to punish and jail violators of election laws to set an example.

On the other hand, the Chairman of Comelec, Honorable Sixto Brillantes Jr. said their office monitored incidents involving strafing, ballot snatching and delays but the elections were generally smooth.

There were a total of about 18 incidents. Compared to the violence experienced in 2010, Chairman Brillantes declared this year's statistics are much lower.

Police authorities report that all over the country, no less than 5 people died in the period near the elections of October 28, 2013. However, pre-election day violence was serious that the national police authorities monitored a large number of violent incidents. No less than 22 people died over a brief period prior to the elections.

Authorities said that Mindanao reportedly had the largest number of hot spots.