An Army soldier checks on a truck filled with voters in Saguiaran town in Lanao del Sur, during the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections on Monday, 30 October 2023. MindaNews photo by FROILAN GALLARDO
MARAWI CITY (MindaNews / 30 October) —The voting for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections on Monday was delayed in the entire 39 municipalities, comprising of 1,159 barangays, in Lanao del Sur as many teachers abandoned poll duty for fear of their lives, an election official said.
Atty. Udtog Tago, Lanao del Sur provincial election supervisor, said the “scale of election-related violence” in the province forced most of the school teachers not to show up for election duty, prompting the Commission on Elections to deploy policemen and Army troops to replace them as members of the Board of Election inspectors.
Tago said they have to deploy at least 900 policemen and soldiers with special elections training to replace the teachers to start the polling.
At the joint election monitoring center at the 103rd Infantry Brigade headquarters in Camp Ranao here, at least 15 incidents of indiscriminate firing and mauling incidents were recorded.
A candidate for village chief was killed shortly before the polling center opened in Butig, Lanao del Sur.
Police identified the victim as Madid Bao, who had an argument with Deamael Bao, reportedly his relative, prior to the shooting incident. Both are contesting the chairmanship of Barangay Poktan.
Polling in majority of the towns in Lanao del Sur started noontime, the election monitoring at the 103rd Infantry Brigade headquarters showed.
As of 4 p.m, Monday, six polling centers in Bayang town have yet to start voting because of the tense situation between rival candidates.
In Buadi-Puso Buntong town, unidentified men in civilian clothes snatch a ballot box from the polling center in Barangay Tuca, a report reaching the election monitoring center said. (Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews)
