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Also, the matters contained in the following were written in accordance with the law, rules, and jurisprudence prevailing at the time of writing and posting, and do not include any future developments on the subject matter under discussion.
AT A GLANCE:
In the case of Dela Cruz v. COMELEC, G.R. No. 192221, November 13, 2012, the Supreme Court explained what happens to the votes cast for a nuisance candidate whose name was still included or printed in the official ballots on election day. Should the votes cast for such a nuisance candidate be considered stray or counted in favor of the bona fide candidate?
The antecedent facts are as follows:
On November 28, 2009, Petitioner Casimira S. Dela Cruz filed her certificate of candidacy for the position of Vice-Mayor of the Municipality of Bugasong, Province of Antique under the ticket of the National People’s Coalition (NPC). Subsequently, Aurelio N. Dela Cruz (Aurelio) also filed a certificate of candidacy for the same position.
Petitioner filed a petition to declare Aurelio a nuisance candidate on the ground that he filed his certificate of candidacy for the vice-mayoralty position to put the election process in mockery and to cause confusion among voters due to the similarity of his surname with petitioner’s surname.
The COMELEC First Division issued a Resolution declaring Aurelio as a nuisance candidate and cancelling his certificate of candidacy for the vice-mayoralty position in Bugasong. The COMELEC En Banc issued Resolution No. 884411 listing the names of disqualified candidates, including Aurelio
On May 10, 2010, the first automated national and local elections proceeded as scheduled. Aurelio’s name remained in the official ballots.
The Statement of Votes by Precinct for Vice-Mayor of Antique-Bugasong showed the following results of the voting:
|
TOTAL |
RANK |
|
|
DELA CRUZ, AURELIO N. |
532 |
3 |
|
DELA CRUZ, CASIMIRA S. |
6389 |
2 |
|
PACETE, JOHN LLOYD M. |
6428 |
1 |
Therefore, private respondent John Lloyd M. Pacete was proclaimed Vice-Mayor of Bugasong.
Petitioner filed with the Regional Trial Court of the Province of Antique an election protest praying for (1) the tallying in her favor of the 532 votes cast for Aurelio; (2) the annulment of respondent Pacete’s proclamation as Vice-Mayor of Bugasong; and (3) her proclamation as winning candidate for the position of Vice-Mayor of Bugasong.
The Supreme Court granted the petition. Generally, a stray vote is invalidated because there is no way of determining the real intention of the voter. This is, however, not the situation in the case at bar. Here, Aurelio was declared a nuisance candidate long before the May 10, 2010 elections. On the basis of Resolution No. 4116, the votes cast for him should not have been considered stray but counted in favor of petitioner.
Moreover, private respondent admits that the voters were properly informed of the cancellation of COC of Aurelio because COMELEC published the same before election day. As we pronounced in Bautista, the voters’ constructive knowledge of such cancelled candidacy made their will more determinable, as it is then more logical to conclude that the votes cast for Aurelio could have been intended only for the legitimate candidate, petitioner. The possibility of confusion in names of candidates if the names of nuisance candidates remained on the ballots on election day, cannot be discounted or eliminated, even under the automated voting system especially considering that voters who mistakenly shaded the oval beside the name of the nuisance candidate instead of the bona fide candidate they intended to vote for could no longer ask for replacement ballots to correct the same.
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