COTABATO CITY -- Majority of Cotabato City's voters opted to join the new political entity in Muslim Mindanao after voting “yes” to the inclusion of this city to the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) based on the Commission on Elections' (Comelec) final tally here Tuesday night.
Based on the canvassing of votes by the City Board of Canvassers that ended at 8:43 p.m. Tuesday, the “yes” had 36,682 (59 percent) votes favoring the inclusion of the city to the new political entity while “no” recorded 24,994 (41 percent).
This was based on unofficial results of canvassing at the Shariff Kabunsuan Cultural Complex, the provisional seat of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao here.
As soon as the canvassing officials declared the completion of counting for the plebiscite on the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), voters who campaigned for “Yes to BOL” celebrated with an impromptu motorcade around major city streets.
The victorious pro-BOL chanted “Allahu Akbar!” (God is Great) as they roamed around the city.
Discrepancy
A discrepancy, however, was noticed as the certificate of canvass showed that of the total 71,963 registered voters, only 39,027 actually voted in 373 precincts (an updated certificate of canvass puts the total number of pollings precincts to 374).
When tallied, the "yes" and "no" votes recorded a total of 61,676 votes, or a difference of 22,649 votes against the number of actual voters.
Atty. Rommel Rama, acting city Comelec officer, said the disprenpancies were computer-generated and that they are still conducting further validation. He did not elaborate.
Lawyer Ray Sumalipao, Comelec-ARMM director, said the poll body will officially announce the plebiscite results in Manila in the coming days, probably after February 6.
Another plebiscite is scheduled on February 6 in six towns in Lanao del Norte and in 67 villages in North Cotabato -- 39 original villages listed in BOL and 28 other villages that petitioned for inclusion and approved by the poll body. (PNA)
