ZAMBOANGA CITY, 3 July 2007 — Police finally arrested a controversial poll official whose failure to produce the May 14 election canvass certificates for Maguindanao province has bolstered suspicion of massive fraud to favor administration senatorial candidates.

Police said Lintang Bedol, the provincial elections supervisor in Maguindanao, did not resist when he was served an arrest warrant issued by the Commission on Election (Comelec).

Bedol was tracked down at a clinic in the southern port city of Davao on Sunday, said Chief Superintendent Joel Goltiao, police director of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Goltiao said no weapon was found from Bedol, who bragged in a clandestine television interview last week that he owned more than 20 guns.

Bedol’s doctor said his patient was suffering from hypertension but approved of the police plan to take him to Manila.

“We did not handcuff him because we refer to his attending physician who informed us that his blood pressure is fluctuating,” Goltiao said.

The Comelec ordered Bedol’s arrest after he failed to show up last month at a hearing in Manila to answer investigations on the disappearance of poll documents under his custody. Bedol said the documents were taken by somebody from his office in Shariff Aguak town. The Comelec said Bedol repeatedly ignored summons to appear before the hearing and since then had not reported for work.

Opposition politicians have accused the government of cheating to ensure victory of its 12 senatorial candidates, especially in the ARMM, which comprises the city of Marawi and the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Shariff Aguak, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

Bedol has denied all charges of poll fraud, justifying the administration win as the product of a “command vote.”

Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan and his son, ARMM Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan, also denied accusations of cheating.

The Ampatuan clan is a staunch ally of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Bedol was among the elections’ officials mentioned in wiretapped conversations allegedly between Arroyo and then poll commissioner Virgilio Garcillano about rigging the 2004 presidential elections.

Arroyo has denied the accusation and succeeded in blocking efforts to investigate the rigging allegations. Her allies in the House of Representatives have also stopped impeachment moves against her on technicalities. Despite the controversy, Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos promoted Bedol and other elections’ officials mentioned in the wiretapped conversations, which triggered calls for Arroyo’s resignation and coup d’etat threats. (With input from Agencies)