The Commission on Elections has dismissed the election protest filed by Alexander Lopez against Manila Mayor Honey Lacuna and affirmed her landslide victory in the 2022 polls.
The poll body ruled that Lopez’s protest was “insufficient in form and content” as the alleged “massive acts of vote-buying were bare assertions, uncorroborated by any proof.”
Lacuna secured 538,595 votes against the 166,908 votes of Lopez. She said she hopes the matter had been settled once and for all.
“While it is Mr. Lopez’s right to file a protest as he sees fit, the reality is that the people of the City of Manila have overwhelmingly expressed and placed their support for the current, duly elected city administration,” Lacuna said.
“All the voters in our city deserve to have their collective choice, recognized and given due course for the remainder of the incumbent’s term,” she said.
The Comelec Second Division said that no proof has been found to support the allegations by Lopez of electoral fraud.
It said no actual affidavits from voters or poll watchers alleging fraud were presented by Lopez.
Out of the 886,133 registered voters, 846,179 voted, according to data from the Comelec.
The Comelec said that even if the 31,608 votes difference between the registered and actual voters were added to Lopez’s tally, they would not be enough to overturn Lacuna’s win of 371,687 votes.
“Undeniably, the protestant employed general and unsubstantiated averments without particularly specifying the circumstances relating to the alleged electoral frauds, anomalies or irregularities,” the poll body ruled.