| Submit your comments on this article |
| Southeast Asia |
| Philippine opposition contests poll |
| 2004-07-24 |
| From the BBC. EFL. The losing candidate in the Philippines presidential election, Fernando Poe, has gone to the Supreme Court in Manila to ask for President Gloria Arroyo's victory to be annulled. He has demanded a recount of about 60% of the votes. A spokesman for Mrs Arroyo said she welcomed Mr Poe's complaint in the interests of fair play, and she believed he had made the right decision by taking the matter to court rather than organising protest demonstrations. In a 28-page petition to the Philippine Supreme Court, Mr Poe's lawyer Sixto Brillantes set out the former actor's complaints. Mr Poe has accused his rival of "massive and widespread electoral fraud, anomalies and irregularities" to win the 10 May polls. His supporters claim that Ms Arroyo manufactured or switched ballots to manipulate the results of the poll. No hanging chads? I'm shocked!!! Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said: "We are glad that Mr Poe and Ms Legarda chose only the legal and proper forum to contest the elections. We are ready to defend our case and we are confident that we stand on solid ground." The fix is in! "Nonetheless, we will continue to extend our hand Time enough to fix the evidence.... Under the Philippine constitution, the Supreme Court has the sole authority to decide election matters, but there is no deadline and cases can drag on for years. Considering they are still waiting to try Estrada - the former president who was replaced by Arroyo |
| Posted by:CrazyFool |