World boxing champion Manny Pacquiao officially won the "biggest fight of his life" Thursday night, adding an eighth title that won't be at stake until the next mandatory fight after three years.
Sarangani's Provincial Board of Canvassers (BOC) formally accorded Pacquiao the title congressman-elect at past 11:40 p.m. here Thursday after scoring a "landslide" win last May 10 in the highly-anticipated fight for the province's lone congressional seat.
Based on the final and official tally released by the BOC, the boxing champion garnered a record 120,052 votes to finish off the congressional hopes of his lone rival, businessman Roy Chiongbian, who only mustered 60,899 votes.
Pacquiao ran under his own political party People's Champ Movement (PCM) and losing presidential bet Manny Villar's Nacionalista Party (NP) while Chiongbian bannered administration coalition Sarangani Reconciliation and Reformation Organization-Lakas-Kampi-CMD (Sarro-Lakas).
"I'm very happy with this win because it's from one of the biggest fights of my life. I thank God and all the people of Sarangani for supporting me all the way," he told reporters following his proclamation at the provincial capitol's Sangguniang Panlalawigan session hall.
The BOC, which was presided by Commission on Elections (Comelec) Region 12 Director Michael Abas, proceeded with the proclamation of the winning provincial candidates after completing the provincial canvassing at around 10 p.m. Thursday.
Abas said the delay was caused by the faulty configuration of the accompanying compact flash (CF) or memory cards of several precinct count optical scan of PCOS machines that were deployed in the vote-rich municipalities of Glan, Kiamba and Malungon.
He said election automation firm Smartmatic-TIM's main office in Manila was only able to deliver the CF card replacements Thursday morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment