Blast mars Sulu village polls

A man carries a wounded girl, Marsalin Sangkula, who was injured after a rifle grenade exploded Monday, October 25, 2010 near the Sultan Mohamad Jamalul Kiram Central School in Maimbung town in the southern Philippine province of Sulu during the village elections. (Mindanao Examiner)

An unidentified man fills out a ballot for a boy who was allowed to cast his vote Monday, October 25, 2010 during village polls in the southern Philippine province of Sulu. (Mindanao Examiner)

An unidentified man allegedly caught bringing unregistered voters during Monday’s village polls in Sulu province in the southern Philippines ran away from this man who confronted him. (Mindanao Examiner)

An unidentified man gives instructions to unregistered voters during Monday’s village polls in Sulu province in the southern Philippines. The man was later confronted and ran away. (Mindanao Examiner)

Teenagers are allowed to cast their votes in Sulu province’s Kulasi village during Monday’s nationwide village polls. Minors are not allowed to vote under Philippine laws, but despite this, many were still able to cast their votes in Kulasi. (Mindanao Examiner)

A follower of a village chieftain in the southern Philippine province of Sulu calls on their supporters to cast their votes in Kulasi using only a piece of paper as their identification cards. Many of those who lined up were unregistered voters. (Mindanao Examiner)

SULU, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 25, 2010) – An unidentified gunman fired a rifle grenade near a polling area as locals cast their votes Monday to elect new village officials in the southern Philippine province of Sulu, police said.

Police said a 10-year old girl Marsalin Sangkula was wounded in the attack that targeted a school in Maimbung town. Authorities said the attacker fired one round of rifle grenade that exploded near a crowded school room where dozens of people were casting their votes.

“We don’t who was behind this attack, but we have doubled our security to protect the voters from further attacks,” said Inspector Nilo Mata, the town’s chief of police.

But before the day was over fist fights erupted between followers of candidates in the village elections. There were many accusations that incumbent village officials were buying votes or had used people from other villages to vote for them.

One candidate who was challenging the incumbent village chieftain said he caught followers of his political foe allegedly engaged in vote-buying and fraud, an accusation denied by the leader.

Before elections were over, poll officials stopped the voting in midday after more melees broke out between followers of opposing candidates and policemen and soldiers had to be called in to stop the fighting.

Security forces also escorted poll officials to the office of the Commission on Elections in Maimbung to prevent gangs from snatching the ballot boxes. Poll officials said they have to close the voting to prevent further violence between opposing groups.

“It was the decision of the Board of Election Inspectors and we have to respect that decision. There were commotion and fighting among followers of the candidates, but we have secured all the ballots,” said Holma Hassan, of the Commission on Elections.

Elections were generally peaceful in many parts of Sulu, one of five provinces under the Muslim autonomous region. (Mindanao Examiner)

Massive cheating, fraud, intimidation cap elections in Sulu province

An elderly Badjao native shows his vote Monday, May 10, 2010 in the village of Kulasi in Maimbung town in Sulu province where thousands of tribesmen who cannot read nor write cast their votes in the Philippines’ first ever automated elections. Many Badjao natives say they were paid up to P1,000 in exchange for their votes and a huge number of those who cast their votes were minors and without election papers. Elections in the town were marred with massive cheating, fraud, vote-buying. Journalists covering the polls in Maimbung were also harassed and prevented by supporters of the local mayor who is seeking re-election from taking video and photos of the exercise inside polling precincts. (Mindanao Examiner Photo)

SULU, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / May 11, 2010) – Accusations of massive cheating, fraud and vote-buying capped Monday’s general elections in the southern Philippine province of Sulu.

Journalists covering the country’s first ever automated elections were also harassed in the village of Kulasi in Maimbung town where thousands of Badjao tribesmen who cannot read nor write cast their votes.

Supporters of the local mayor who is seeking re-election prevented one television journalist from taking video and photos of the exercise inside polling precincts for a still unknown reason.

Many natives said they were paid up to P1,000 in exchange for their votes. And a huge number of those who cast their votes were minors and without election papers. Elections in the town were marred with massive cheating, fraud and vote-buying.

Last hour elections were disrupted by clashes between poll watchers of opposing candidates after poll inspectors allowed minors to vote. Police fired warning shots to prevent the escalation of violence.

Many voters in the village just washed off their ink markings on their fingers and voted several times in different polling precincts.

Two teenagers – both 16 years old - told a police officer outside the Lidung Elementary School where the elections were held that they were paid P500 each to vote for candidates whose names were written on a piece of paper. They said the ink markings put by poll inspectors on their fingers were easily washed off.

“We just scrubbed our finger and the ink washed away and we were able to vote twice in separate polling precincts. We were paid P500 each,” one teenager told the police officer.

And policemen and soldiers cannot do anything because they were not allowed near the polling places. All they did was to monitor the elections and keep the people safe from possible attacks of Abu Sayyaf militants whose group is tied to al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya.

“This is terrible. This election exercise is comparable to none. There is massive cheating, fraud and intimidation,” one watcher of the government’s Lakas-Kampi-CMD coalition said.

One elderly Badjao tribesman, who cannot read or write, also showed a piece of paper where the names of local candidates – from congressman to council members – were written on a white piece of paper.

Speaking through an interpreter, he said he was given money in exchange for his votes. It was unknown how illegal voters, many of them unregistered with the Commission on Elections, were able to cast their votes, but suspicion fell heavily on poll inspectors who were composed mostly of state teachers in cahoots with local politicians.

There were also several reports of fist fights among poll watchers of opposing politicians in some polling areas.

In Sulu’s Tongkil town, one supporter of Lakas-Kampi-CMD was mauled by policemen who were acting as bodyguard of a local politician. The victim, who suffered huge cuts on the face and head, was rushed to hospital in the capital town of Jolo.

In Luuk town, six voting machines were destroyed inside polling precincts by supporters of local candidates who were demanding the Commission of Elections to resort to manual counting of votes and would not release the machines to authorities.

Poll observers fear the results would be padded in favor of the local candidates.

In nearby Tawi-Tawi province, journalists covering the elections in Panglima Sugala town were also harassed by bodyguards of a local politician. They were not allowed to take videos and photos of the elections. Poll fraud and cheating were also reported in the town, said one female journalist.

“We were harassed. They have not respected the non-partisan role of the media in this electoral exercise,” she said.

The media watchdog, National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, said it is documenting all reports of harassments against journalists. (Mindanao Examiner)