Coin tossing breaks tie in Philippine mayoral race

MANILA: What do you do when two candidates running for mayor in the Philippines get exactly the same number of votes? You get them to toss a coin.
Marvic Feraren and Boyet Py both received 3,236 votes for mayor of San Teodoro town in Mindoro Oriental province in the May 13, 2013 elections.
The Elections Commissions suggested the two men flip a coin five times each, which is allowed under the country’s Election Code to break a tie.
Feraren won Tuesday, but not before a second round of coin flipping.
They tied in the first round too.

Close call
In another strange twist, a mayor seeking re-election in the central island of Leyte went on to win after conceding defeat to his opponent.
A report by the Philippine Daily Inquirer said Mayor Mariano Malones Sr. of Maasin town gave up the race for lost when his opponent, Elben Marlon Malaga, was leading by a wide margin during the counting of votes.
With the wide lead of Malaga, his supporters started celebrating.
But when the final tally was out, opposition party candidate Malones won by a mere five votes, said the report.

No more delays
The southern province of Lanao del Sur, meanwhile, got a big pat on the back from the Election Commission Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. for not having a failure of election for the first time.
“In the history of Lanao del Sur since 1987, there had always been … a failure of elections. For the very first time, in the elections of May 2013, there is no failure of elections in the entire province of Lanao del Sur,” Brillantes told local reporters.
Lanao del Sur had been among the provinces notorious for cases of massive election violence and fraud, including the existence of "ghost" voters.
Counting of votes this time was a little faster with the introduction of a computerized voting system.

— With a AP report