THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) recount in Manila is over, confirming that Mayor Alfredo S. Lim indeed won over former Environment Secretary Lito Atienza by an unprecedented margin.

This was announced yesterday by Lim’s chief of staff and media bureau chief Ric de Guzman, who said that based on the ballots from the total number of clustered precincts reported, which is 200, Lim gathered  65,375 votes while Atienza got a measly 20,340.  The remaining 12,427 votes were spread over the other candidates.     

In terms of percentage, De Guzman said 66.61 percent of the ballots recounted went to Lim while Atienza garnered  20.73 percent only, slightly bigger than the 12.66 percent that went to other candidates.

“Finally, this issue can be put to rest.  The pendency of the case has long been used as a basis for peddling lies via press releases,” De Guzman sighed, adding that Lim’s camp expects the Comelec to issue its final ruling on the matter anytime soon.

De Guzman noted that just like what the over-all results showed during the May polls last year, Lim handily won over Atienza in each of Manila’s six districts during the recount, with leads ranging between 6,000 and 11,000 votes. 

Broken down by district, the Comelec official recount results are as follows: District 1-Lim (15,900), Atienza (4,278); District 2- Lim (11,176), Atienza (3,039); District 3-Lim (9,197), Atienza (2,381); District 4-Lim (9,140), Atienza (3,431); District 5-Lim (10,349), Atienza (4,408); District 6-Lim (9,613), Atienza (2,803).                        

“The concluded recount which showed Mayor Lim getting a vote percentage of 221 percent over the protestant only cemented Atienza’s overwhelming defeat in the said election,” De Guzman stressed.   

He also noted that it was Atienza himself who chose the 200 boxes of ballots to be recounted, as he impliedly questioned the accuracy of the first automated  polls done last year.                   

“Lumalabas na accurate pala ang bilang na ginawa ng makina as the automated results tallied or conformed with the results of the manual count done by the Comelec.  They are the same.  Let this be a test case for all other similar protests.  Hindi totoo na iba ang resulta ng automated counting sa manual,” De Guzman added. With Milenette Sarah Uy and Adrian Stewart Co