Belen completes comeback in landslide win over Lim
FORMER Mayor Belen Fernandez fulfilled her dream to return to her old post when she beat incumbent Mayor Brian Lim by a landslide in their return bout in the May 9 elections.
Fernandez, who run under the Aksyon Demokratiko party, amassed 67,499 votes against Lim’s 42,689 votes or a commanding lead of 14,810 votes. Lim run under the banner of the Nacionalista Party.
A third mayoralty candidate Juan Siapno Jr. an independent, garnered only 417 votes.
Fernandez was proclaimed winner of the elections before noon on May 10 (Tuesday) by the City Board of Canvassers led by City Elections Officer Michael Franks Sarmiento, with City Prosecutor Victoria Cabrera and Aguedo Fernandez, member-Secretary, after completing the canvassing of the results in 194 precincts where 104,637 out of 138,721 registered voters voted.
Fernandez lost the elections in 2019 to Lim by only 1,239 votes.
Lim conceded to Fernandez after midnight on Tuesday after noting the commanding lead posted by Fernandez with only 700 votes still to be transmitted, Lim knew the number could no longer affect the standing of the front-running candidates for mayor and vice mayor.
However, City Elections Officer Sarmiento held off the proclamation until all the votes had been canvassed.
It was learned that, more than 700 votes had to be counted manually because of technical problem posed by the vote counting machine.
Fernandez was proclaimed along with her running mate Vice Mayor Bryan Kua, and their three winning candidates for councilors, Jeslito Seen, Dennis Canto and Michael Fernandez. All run under the Team Belen-BK.
Former Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., his wife former Congresswoman Gina de Venecia, Punch columnist Gonzalo Duque and the relatives of both Fernandez and Kua witnessed their proclamation.
Kua also scored a landslide victory 73,766 votes against Lim’s running mate Carlos Alipio Fernandez’s 42,689 votes.
The seven candidates under the Lim-Fernandez team that were proclaimed were Dada Reyna, Alvin Coquia, Celia Lim, Marilou Fernandez, Aflie Fernandez, Redford Erfe-Mejia and Irene Lim-Acosta., making them the majority bloc. (Leonardo Micua)
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