PIMENTEL DENOUNCES FOUL SCHEME
TO DENY OPPOSITION COPIES OF ELECTION RETURNS

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino 'Nene' Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today accused Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos of blatant partisanship and misinterpretation of election law by raising the possibility that the Genuine Opposition may not be entitled to one of the seven copies of election returns in the May 14 elections.

Pimentel said Abalos may be revealing his true color as a Malacañang lackey by saying that either the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi) or Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC) which are both administration parties ? may get the 5th copy of the election returns that poll officials will prepare in more than 220,000 voting precincts all over the country.

"Here is a palpable sign that the Comelec chairman is not acting in a fair and impartial manner in resolving election issues to the detriment of the opposition," he said.

The minority leader said irresponsible and reckless pronouncements like this only tend to fuel apprehensions the stage is being set for massive cheating in the coming elections through the connivance of the administration and Comelec.

The amended Republic Act 7166 (Synchronized Election Law of 1991), under section 27, provides that the dominant majority party and dominant minority parties are entitled to the fourth and fifth copies, respectively, of the election returns for president, vice president, senators, congressmen, and party-list representatives, as well as local officials.

The Comelec is tasked to determine the dominant majority and minority parties based on a number of factors such as the record of their participation in previous elections, the number of incumbent officials belonging to them and their ability to fill up candidates down to the municipal level.

Pimentel argued that only the Genuine Opposition, which is a coalition of opposition political parties, should be recognized as the dominant minority party that is entitled to the 5th copy of election returns by virtue of the letter and spirit of the Omnibus Election Code and by tradition.

He said neither Kampi nor NPC should be accorded this right because Kampi is the party of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo while NPC is allied with the administration Lakas Christian Muslim Democrats.

Pimentel said that when Congress used the term dominant minority party in the Election Code, it was clearly referring to the leading opposition party as distinguished from the dominant majority party.

"How can Kampi or NPC be entitled to the fifth copy of the election returns when both of them belong to the majority or administration? For heaven's sake, they should understand at least the spirit of the law and how it applies under the circumstances."

He warned that the Comelec should refrain from erroneous acts that only destroy its credibility and induce the people to believe that there is no more hope for clean and honest elections.

Pimentel appealed to Comelec officials to assert their independence by not allowing themselves to be an accomplice of the administration in devising dubious schemes that aim to cripple the opposition and remove the safeguards against electoral fraud in the face of reliable forecasts and surveys showing that GO will sweep the senatorial race.