SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union – The provincial office of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) here dismissed over 50 disqualification cases filed by several quarters against numerous provincial, city and municipal candidates for lack of merit.

A report from the local Comelec showed almost all the petitions for disqualification filed against many provincial, city and municipal candidates were anchored on the fact that the aspirants for local elective positions have double party nominations which does not reflect their party loyalty.

The candidates who are being subjected to disqualification belong to the political rivals, the Ortega and Dumpit families.

The Ortegas are known to dominate the first district of La Union while the Dumpits still hang on to their clout in the second district of the province over the past two decades.

In dismissing the over 50 petitions for disqualification filed against the different aspirants for elective local positions, the Comelec ruled having double party nominations is not a solid ground to deprive a certain candidate of his chance to serve his or her constituents, thus the electorate should be allowed to determine the fate of the candidates and not for the poll body to do so.

Political analysts in the province believe the upcoming May, 2010 elections will be an exciting exercise because the Ortega-Dumpit rivalry will be revived.

Earlier, the Comelec included in its watchlist 12 towns in the province, most of which are located in the second district, because of the expected intense political rivalry among the contending candidates as well as their respective history of election-related violence and incidents that happened in the places during the previous elections.