Last week Thursday, we told you how the PUP accused UDP Chairman Alberto August of abusing proxy forms in an attempt commit election fraud. They accused the Chief Elections Officer of being complicit in getting August, quote, "hundreds of blank proxy forms".
Both the Chief Elections Officer Josephine Tamai, and the UDP Chairman August have flatly denied and condemned those allegations as political mischief. Tamai did write to PUP Secretary General Myrtle Palacio informing her that if she and the PUP would like, they could get a supervised visit to the Elections and Boundaries Office to see the proxy voters list for themselves.
They took that opportunity this afternoon, and when they exited about 45 minutes later, Palacio and the PUP's legal advisor were not satisfied. But, neither could they point to any instance of proxy voter fraud waiting to happen tomorrow. Here's what they had to say:
Mike Rudon, Ch5
"You all have seen the list?"
Andrew Marshalleck, Legal Advisor PUP
"Yes, we got a look at the list just now."
Mike Rudon, Ch5
"Was it all that you have expected? Did it raises a red flag, so to speak, at this point?"
Andrew Marshalleck, Legal Advisor PUP
"Well it's hard to verify any of the information on there. We can only know that there are about 1,100 or so persons who have appointed proxies; about 300 of those are security personnel; about a half dozen diplomats and all the others are persons on election duties."
Myrtle Palacio, Secretary General - PUP
"Even what we saw quickly within the 45 minutes or so, there is no way or verifying that. If I saw you name there, unless I know you personally, I won't whether you are a police officer. So we have seen it and had to push to get to this level and it was a supervised visit like when the bad fathers force to visit their children. It leave a bitter taste really for our democracy at 2015. What I can say is that this is the very first time the proxy register has come into question ever as far as I know and there are one or two records for questioning, but we have to do our due diligence before calling out anybody's name and we know of one or two that's very questionable."
Daniel Ortiz
"Ma'am, the chief elections officer has condemned the allegations suggesting that she is complicit in election fraud with the proxy votes. Is this election hysteria from the PUP?"
Myrtle Palacio, Secretary General - PUP
"Well, you see us looking hysterical? It's our role as stakeholders to know what is happening, if where there is no transparency and it's your role as media as well, because you have a stake in this. We are doing our duty as the opposition, as a political party that is one of the horses in this race. That is exactly what we are doing and no less, no more, people expect that of us."
Yesterday the Elections & Boundaries Department released a statement saying, quote, "…Be advised that the Elections and Boundaries Department has not and will never violate the sanctity of the Electoral laws… At no time did the Department ever approve or execute any blank proxy forms. In the circumstances, all allegations of that nature that is in the public domain are false, mischievous, and egregious and calculated to cause public discomfort and unease at this critical juncture…" End Quote.
Email
Print