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Poll
officials display a copy of election returns sheets before the
results were declared. (Reuters)
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By
Rexcel Sorza, IOL Correspondent
ILOILO
CITY, Philippines, August 11, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) - Town Mayor
Zhaldy Ampatuan was declared Thursday, August 11, 2005, by the
Commission on Elections as the fifth governor of the Autonomous Region
in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) after garnering the majority of votes in the
elections held last Monday.
"By
Allah's kindness I was chosen to run as governor of the ARMM. And now
by Allah's kindness again I was proclaimed the winner," said
Ampatuan, after he was proclaimed the new governor succeeding Parouk
Hussin.
Ampatuan
was officially declared winner around 4:30 p.m. in Cotabato City, the
seat of the regional government. He won over incumbent ARMM Vice
Governor Mahid Mutilan and Ibrahim Paglas III.
According
to a Commission on Elections tally, the 37-year-old Ampatuan garnered
482,213 votes while Mutilan got 177,769 and Paglas got 61,257 of the
region's 1.2 million votes.
"I
extend my hand of reconciliation to my opponents [in the elections]
and their supporters. Let us forget the elections and work together
for the good of the ARMM," added Ampatuan, current mayor of
Shariff Aguak town in Maguidanao province.
Ampatuan,
son of Maguindanao province Governor Andal Ampatuan Sr., campaigned on
the platform of better governance of the autonomous region that was
created in 1990 and covers the provinces of Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi,
Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur and the Islamic City of Marawi.
Question
Marks
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The
process was marred by reports of rigging and vote buying.
(Reuters)
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Rep.
Mujiv Hataman said, however, he would question the results of the
elections before the House of Representatives.
"I
would seek for an inquiry to address the perennial cheating in the
region," he told IslamOnline.net Thursday, August 11.
He
said there should be stiffer penalties for those who cheated in the
polls. Hataman said, "We have to punish and bring to justice
people behind the cheating. We should not allow our system to work
like this and leave the perpetrators scot-free."
Professor
Talib Benito of the King Faisal Center for Islamic, Arabic and Studies of the Mindanao State University told IOL on Wednesday, August
10, the polls were "in fact unclean and dishonest. The results of
the elections do not reflect the true sentiment and choice of the
people. There was vote buying and all local officials were
involved."
Apart
from buying votes, candidates and their supporters reportedly resorted
to filling up the ballots before the polls, disabling the voters to
cast votes.
Hataman
said he has received reports that a local official in Basilan province
was behind poll fraud committed in the town of Tuburan. Election
paraphernalia were allegedly delivered last Sunday, August 7, 2005, to
the teachers instead of Monday morning which resulted in the so-called
"ready-made ballots."
The
ARMM was created in 1990 to show that the Philippine government was
serious in forging peace with the separatist revolutionary group Moro
National Liberation Front to end the decades-long armed conflict. MNLF
and Manila sealed a peace pact in 1996.
It
saw MNLF founder Nur Misuari taking the post of ARMM governor.
