All BSKE winners proclaimed – Comelec

TWO days after the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE), the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said that all winners have been proclaimed.

Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia announced on Wednesday that canvassing of votes nationwide is 100 percent complete, and there was no report of election failure.

Also, the poll body chief said, «100 percent complete voting and canvassing nationwide. No failure of election. The only remaining unproclaimed candidates were the ones ordered suspended by the Commission and those with tied votes.»

Comelec spokesman John Rex Laudiangco said the latest to be proclaimed were the winning barangay and SK candidates in Nag-Uma in Calbayog City, Samar.

Last Monday's voting in Nag-uma was stopped after suspected members of the New People's Army (NPA) fired at the Army personnel and three public school teachers acting as members of the electoral board (EB) at around 6:30 a.m., but no one was reported hurt in the incident.

«Therefore, at the same time, all the canvassing and proclamation proceedings in all 42,001 barangay have been completed 100 percent,» added Laudiangco.

Prior to the October 30 poll, the Comelec suspended the proclamation of 256 candidates if they won because of pending disqualification cases against them.

Cases leveled against them ranged from premature campaigning, vote buying, illegal campaigning, and violation of the anti-political dynasty prohibition, and also those who filed their certificates of candidacy despite being ordered perpetually disqualified from holding public office by the Office of the Ombudsman.

Of the 256 candidates with stop-proclamation order, 59 have won, and 67 lost, while the rest were still under validation.

A total of 672,016 positions were at stake in this year's village and youth council polls. Of the number, 42,001 are for barangay captains and 294,007 for members of the Sangguniang Barangay. The same number of positions went for SK chairman and SK council members.

Based on Comelec records, there were 1,414,487 aspirants in the BSKE. Of the number, 96,962 for barangay captain; 731,682 for members of Sangguniang Barangay; 92,774 aspirants for Sangguniang Kabataan chairperson; and