SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao (MindaNews/12 May) — Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu and Ismael “Dustin” Mastura are now leading the gubernatorial and vice gubernatorial race in Maguindanao with returns now from 23 out of 36 towns.
With the addition of Sultan Kudarat, a vote-rich Mastura bailiwick, Datu Salibo, Upi, Rajah Buayan and SK Pendatun, Mangudadatu, who is running for governor, now has 113,437 votes against Datu Ombra Sinsuat’s 68,900 and Midpantao Midtimbang’s 47,400.
In the contest for vice governor, Mastura got 123,886 votes against Datu Andal Ampatuan Sr’s 80,311 votes.
As of 1:30 p.m. , only one town, SK Pendatun, has transmitted its election returns, Acting Provincial Election Supervisor Renault Macarambon told MindaNews. He said they suspended session at around 11 p.m. Tuesday with 22 towns already in.
Macarambon on Tuesday had said they may go beyond the 48-hour period within which to proclaim winners because of the delays from the municipal level.
“It’s causing a chain reaction of delays,” he told MindaNews during the lunch break today at the Sangguniang Panlalawigan session hall here/
He cited problems of defective flash card in five precincts in Datu Blah Sinsuat, two precincts in Datu Odin Sinsuat and two precincts in Shariff Saydona.
These have been replaced.
But Macarambon today said some defective flash cards that the Comelec recalled last week may not have been replaced with the reconfigured ones.
Macarambon reiterate another problem was that technicians in the polling places did not know know what to do. “”Wala silang alam,” (they don’t know what do), he said, adding, one was, in fact, a celfone repair technician.
He said the technicians should have been hired by Comelec. He said the technicians were hired by Smartmatic-TIM, the providers of the PCOS machines.
In vote-rich Sultan Kudarat, Mangudadatu got 42,181 votes against Midtimbang’s 1,075 and Sinsuat’s 663 while vice gubernatorial bet Mastura got 42,959 votes against Ampatuan Sr’s 80,311
In Datu Salibo town, Mangudadatu received 510 votes against Midtimbang’s 1,425 and Sinsuat’s 383 while Mastura got 588 votes against Ampatuan’s 1,547.
In Upi, Mangudadatu got 8,705 votes against Midtimbang’s 1,119 and Sinsuat’s 5,933 while Mastura got 8,704 votes against Ampatuan’s 4,140.
In SK Pendatun, Mangudadatu got 4,920 votes, Midtimbang 700 and Sinsuat, 1,153 votes. Ampatuan Sr. got 1,297 votes against Mastura’s 4,312.
Curiously, in Rajah Buayan town, whose mayor, the reelected Datu Yacob Lumenda Ampatuan, is a son-in-law of the Ampatuan patriarch, the latter lost to Mastura. Mastura got 3,489 votes while Ampatuan Sr.,got 2,162. Mangudadatu on the other hand got 4,062 against Midtimbang’s 2,400 votes and Sinsuat’s 141. (Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews)