Tanjay City mayoralty candidate Neil Salma filed a complaint with the Commission on Elections in Manila, Friday, claiming there was election fraud in his city during the May 14 exercise.

Salma, of the Basta Tinudanayâ ng Serbisyo party, through his campaign manager Dr. Ben Bumanglag, said he insists that there was massive cheating thorough ballot switching and dagdag-bawas (vote padding) and shaving in Tanjay. He added that their supporters told them of discrepancies in the results during the canvass of votes. Salma questioned the authenticity of 27 election returns from four barangays.

Salma said he was already prepared to accept his defeat to Lawrence Teves because he strongly believes that the people of Tanjay have spoken through the sacredness of the ballots.

But he said he was surprised at the reactions of their supporters who were claiming justice for their votes.

Salma's legal counsel, Allan Martinez, said they filed their election protest at Comelec Manila on the grounds that they have discovered contested election returns from the precincts of the four barangays in Tanjay.

Martinez denied speculations they are using delaying tactics to postpone the proclamation of the winning candidates, adding that their move is within the bounds of the law.

Meanwhile, Tanjay City election officer Rafael Orillana said that, as of press time yesterday, the proclamation of winners in Tanjay has been put on hold until further notice from COMELEC Manila.

Orillana said it was alleged that there are 27 contested ERs from four barangays with a total of 6,122 registered voters.

Based on the final and unofficial result from the Diocesan Electoral Board, Tanjay City mayoralty candidate Lawrence Teves gained 17,052 votes while Neil Salma got only 14,168 votes.

In the vice mayoralty race, Nenita Rabaya of BTS garnered only 12,098 while Nilo Tam garnered a total votes of 17,856.

Tanjay City has a total of 182 precincts and has around 39,606 thousand registered voters.*MA

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