COTABATO CITY ---- Failures in the conduct of the May 9 elections in certain areas in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao were manageable compared to the problems and the violence that affected the four regional elections prior, officials said Wednesday.
Lawyer Michael Abas, director of the Commission on Elections for ARMM, said there was failure of elections on May 9 only in the town of Binidayen in Lanao del Sur and in several polling sites in Sulu. A special election in Binidayen was administered peacefully on May 14 without any problem at all, he said.
“There was failure there in Binidayen not because of security problems, or the absence of teachers and security personnel, but because the election officer disappeared that day. That official had been asked to explain his side of the case,” Abas said.
Election-related violence in the autonomous region, failures in the conduct of electoral exercises in certain areas and post-election hostilities among political clans were worst during the four ARMM polls from between 2001 to 2013.
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