Covenant poll predicts Ben-Tim victory

A day after the Commonwealth Elections Commission concluded the counting of votes, the leading gubernatorial tandem of Benigno Fitial and Timothy Villagomez is anticipating victory once the absentee ballots are counted.

Covenant Party chair Martin Manglona said the party formed a task force that polled absentee voters abroad. Manglona said Fitial and Villagomez would get 427 “confirmed” votes out of some 1,526 absentee ballots.

“If you take the worst case scenario, we’ll still make it,” Manglona said. “Even if [Gov. Juan N.] Babauta makes 600, we still can make it. Even if Heinz [Hofschneider] takes 500, we still can make it.”

Fitial and Villagomez have earned 3,497 votes so far, 126 votes ahead than the 3,371 votes for Hofschneider and running mate Dave Apatang, and 269 votes higher than incumbent Babauta and Diego Benavente’s 3,228 votes.

Manglona said the party’s task force consists of precinct representatives who contacted absentee voters belonging to their respective precincts.

“We just want to thank the voters for their support,” Manglona said. “After the elections, we should be working together now. The politics is over so we should be working as one Commonwealth.”

The number of absentee voters per precinct is 537 for Precinct 1; 48, Precinct 2; 281, Precinct 3; 239, Precinct 4; 154, Precinct 5; and 267, Precinct 6.

Based on the task force’s polling of absentee voters, Fitial and Vilagomez expect to get only 85 votes from the party’s bailiwick, Precinct 3. The party expects to get only 114 votes from Precinct 1, Hofschneider-Apatang’s stronghold. It expects to get 30 votes from Precinct 2; 48 votes from Precinct 4; and 50 votes from Precinct 5.

The party, however, expects to get the nod of 100 out of the 267 absentee voters from Precinct 6—Rota.

But Manglona conceded that there are certain variables that could affect the actual turnout of votes, such as spoiled ballots due to overvoting and late mailing of the ballots.

He expressed optimism, though, that such variables could affect not only the votes for Fitial-Villagomez, but also those of Hofschneider-Apatang and Babauta-Benavente.

During early Sunday’s counting of votes, Fitial-Villagomez had tailed behind Hofschneider-Apatang and Babauta-Benavente throughout the process until the election commission tallied the votes for Precinct 3. Fitial’s wide edge against his counterparts in that precinct changed the preliminary poll outcome, with the Covenant Party candidate snatching the lead from Hofschneider and Babauta.

Fitial and Villagomez got 920 votes for Precinct 3, several hundred votes ahead of Hofschneider-Apatang’s 583 votes and Babauta-Benavente’s 519. Fitial, Hofschneider and Babauta all voted in that precinct.