By Edwin Fernandez
KIDAPAWAN CITY, (PNA) -– Elections here have been generally peaceful and orderly except for some complaints of electioneering by some candidates.
Hundreds of voters took sometime before finding their names in the list of voters.
“We have a very peaceful and orderly election,” declared Kidapawan City election officer Diosdado Javier.
Without declaring how many of the more than 74,000 registered voters in Kidapawan City’s 40 villages actually cast their votes, Javier said initial investigation showed the turnout was high.
Elsewhere in the province, the voting was generally peaceful and started on time except in some villages in Pikit, North Cotabato, according to Lawyer Duque Kadatuan, provincial election supervisor.
In Pikit, voters in 13 barangays failed to choose their leaders as public school teachers refused to administer the balloting in the areas of assignment.
Despite military and police assurance the areas were safe, the teachers still opted to have the balloting at Pikit Central Elementary School, an act the poll body rejected.
In Mlang, North Cotabato a hand grenade was lobbed by two men riding in tandem on a motorbike toward the house of businessman Joselito Mercado along Roxas Street.
Mercado who ran and lost in the May 2013 local elections, was not in the house when the attack occurred, according to Inspector Rolando Dillera, Mlang police chief.