SC rules votes for nuisance bets are stray in automated polls

The Supreme Court has ruled that votes for a declared nuisance candidate under the automated election system (AES) will be considered stray and will not be counted for any candidate.

This new ruling abandons a previous precedent where such votes were counted in favor of the legitimate candidate.

The decision stems from a case involving Marcos "Macoy" Cabrera Amutan, who was initially proclaimed a winner for a board member position in Cavite.

A losing candidate, Alvic Madlangsakay Poblete, was declared a nuisance bet, and the votes for him were initially counted in favor of Francisco Paolo Poblete Crisostomo.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) subsequently annulled Amutan's proclamation and declared Crisostomo the winner, prompting Amutan's petition to the SC.

The SC reviewed prior jurisprudence, like Dela Cruz v. Comelec, Santos v. Comelec, and Zapanta v. Comelec, which established the rule for manual elections where votes for nuisance candidates were credited to the legitimate candidate.