Valladolid Mayor Ricardo Presbitero yesterday said special operations were launched against him by his opponents on election day to diminish his votes but he is not conceding defeat.

Presbitero said that, aside from the refusal of the COMELEC to honor a court order for the inclusion of 946 additional voters, about 600 to 800 voters in his bailiwicks in Central Tabao, Tabao Proper and Bagumbayan could not find their names on lists at the precinct levels.

They were all regular voters from the 2004 election and most of them were his supporters, Presbitero said. This massive disenfranchisement and cheating was designed to bring down the lone opposition mayor in this province, Presbitero said of himself.

This was coupled by the use of armed goons and massive vote-buying, he said.

Presbitero also said that out of 123 precincts in Valladolid, 50 precincts have yet to be counted.

Presbitero still expects to win by a very slight margin over Rommel Yogore of the Nationalist People's Coalition.

NOTED BY OBSERVERS

The International Observers Mission, in its report yesterday, also noted the massive disenfranchisement of voters in Valladolid.

We will definitely take up the problem of massive disenfranchisement of voters in Valladolid, Lawrence Surendra of the IOM three-man team that visited Negros Occidental, said.

"We believe in any democracy, fundamental constitutional rights as the right to vote should hold complete precedence over administrative rules and bureaucratic dictates," the IOM report said.*CPG

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