BACOLOD City – A coin toss will determine who will be the next Sangguniang Kabataan chairwoman in Barangay 26.
Charise Tayapad and Blessy Go got 168 votes each, the local Commission on Elections (Comelec) office said after the canvassing of votes.
City Election Officer Mavil Sia said the coin toss will be held on Monday next week, May 21.
A coin toss is a legal remedy to break a tie between only two candidates, according to Comelec.
It shall be called for only when the canvass of the election results shows a tie. The concerned candidates shall personally or through counsel attend the coin toss, Comelec said.
The winner of the coin toss will be proclaimed the winner as though they had garnered the highest number of votes.
Still, all remedies for contesting election results will be available to losing candidates, said Comelec.
Sia confirmed on Tuesday that they have proclaimed all the winners – punong barangays, barangay kagawads, and SK chairpersons and kagawads – in all barangays in the city, except Barangay 26.
But she said they cannot officially make public yet the names of all the winners pending verification by the Comelec central office.
Meanwhile Sia said they have not received any formal complaint with regard to the conduct or the results of the synchronized barangay and SK elections as of Tuesday.
Any complaint or protest should be filed at the proper forum – the courts – the city election officer said.
Their deadline for the proclamation of winners was 5 p.m. Tuesday, she said.
Sia admitted that the SK election slowed down the counting and canvassing of votes.
Canvassing in some barangays ended Tuesday morning (the elections were on Monday), she said.
Another factor was the number of voters, Sia noted.
Tthere were a lot more SK voters this year because the SK Reform Act raised the age bracket to 15-30 years old from the previous 15-17 years old – she said./PN
