The hope of Suara Bangsamoro party-list group of becoming the voice of Muslims has dimmed

By Rexcel Sorza, IOL Correspondent

ILOILO CITY, May 17 (IslamOnline.net) – A candidate for a Philippine Muslim party-list group accused the military of "systematic fraud" in the general elections of the lower house of Parliament last week.

Amirah Ali Lidasan, one of the three nominees of Suara Bangsamoro, blamed the "systematic fraud" perpetrated by "forces of vested interests against Suara Bangsamoro" as the culprits behind its defeat.

Speaking to IslamOnline.net, Lidasan named the military as the cause of the group's unsuccessful bid at bringing the plight of the Filipino Muslims to the halls of Congress.

"The military’s direct hand in the canvassing of votes systematized fraud and terror. Soldiers have been actively meddling in the actual counting and canvassing of votes," she said.

Lidasan cited as "one of the garish incidents of fraud" was in the Islamic city of Marawi where 33 percent of election returns were declared as spoiled by the elections commission because the total number of votes acquired by the party-list group exceeded the number of registered voters.

She further cited that in Buluan, Maguindanao province, which was supposedly one of the party’s strongholds, Suara Bangsamoro got no vote.

"Even the votes of our third nominee, Mike Abdullah, and his families who actually cast their votes for Suara were not counted. Instead, surprising figures were allocated for military-backed party-list groups, which do not even have machineries in the area," Lidasan said

Rampant Fraud

Lidasan pointed out that there was rampant electoral fraud carried out in most areas of Mindanao .

"In Saranggani province, our watchers have reported that single-digit votes were added with zero to bloat the turnout for Akbayan party-list, hence increasing their acquired votes by tens."

The nominee said the election scenario in Mindanao "alarmingly paints a very lurid picture of terror, black propaganda and fraud".

Complaints

Lidasan said the military refused Suara Bangsamoro watchers to witness the proceedings in the provinces, particularly Sulu province, where Suara Bangsamoro watchers aired complaints against marine and Army personnel who did not allow votes for the party-list group to be read and counted.

"The imposing, authoritarian, and highly intimidating presence of armed military personnel in polling and canvassing precincts destroyed the amiable atmosphere needed for the conduct of peaceful and honest elections," .

"How could their voices and their votes be more powerful than the rifles of these armed men when they have lived their lives in terror owing to the massive all-out-war drives perpetrated by the military and the government in their communities?” Lidasan decried.

"For a long time already, the military has had an ill reputation for using their arms and authority against civilian rule and mandate. And for countless occasions, the Moro people have been victims of this malignant corruption and terrorism perpetrated by the military," she said.

She also referred to the distortion campaign launched to distort the image of Muslim nominees.

Shortly before the elections, National Security Adviser] Norberto Gonzales tagged Suara Bangsamoro and five other progressive party-list groups are front organizations of the Communist Party of the Philippines .

Urgent Action

Lidasan said the massive fraud and terror that currently prevailing pose a vital question and a challenge to Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's Presidential bid.

"If the Arroyo camp does not want its foreseen victory to be marred by corruption perpetuated by its own military , it should stop wallowing in self-victory but instead issue urgent action to stop the partisan and militarist role of its armed forces this elections,” Lidasan expressed.

Arroyo took a formidable lead in an unofficial count of last week's Philippine elections, but allegations of cheating are keeping the tempers high and portending six years of political division, Reuters said on Monday, May 17.

The camp of rival opposition candidate Panfilo Lacson gave details of its allegations to the media on Monday, demanding to know why Arroyo's opponents received zero votes in some precincts, among other discrepancies it said it had found, the news agency reported.

It added that elections in the Philippines are always unruly, with bribery and violence relatively common during the campaign and disputes and lawsuits rife afterwards.

The party-list system was introduced in The Philippines to give marginalized sectors an opportunity to push for pieces of legislation to further their cause.

Voters chose two representatives in the House of Representatives. The first is the representative of the district, a group of towns, where the voter resides, and the next is the party-list representative.

Twenty percent of the 260 seats in the House of Representatives are reserved for party-list. Each party-list group which gets two percent of total party-list votes cast wins a seat in the House of Representatives, with each party allowed only a maximum of three seats.