Speaker Prospero C. Nograles Friday filed a petition for mandamus before the Supreme Court to compel the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to cleanse its voters’ list in Davao City instead of merely relying on so-called “watchlist.”

In a 10-page petition filed through his lawyer Danilo Basa, Nograles also asked the High Court to order Comelec to prepare a new voters’ list covering the three congressional districts of Davao City, which should be used as basis in the conduct of the May 10 national and local elections.

Nograles is running for mayor of Davao City against Vice-Mayor Sara Duterte, daughter of his political archenemy and incumbent Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.

In filing the petition, Nograles said he was alarmed over the possibility of a failure of elections in the city following the discovery of tens of thousands of multiple/double and dead registrants there.

Nograles warned that Comelec’s refusal to deactivate all these bogus registrants in the voters’ list and its decision to simply provide a watch list for the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs) “will cast a  cloud of doubt over the results of the elections, both national and local.”

“To conduct an election on the basis of such questionable lists of voters in Davao City will cast a cloud of doubt over the results of the elections, both national and local,” he said.

The Nograles petition came after several congressmen warned of a looming failure of elections because of the huge number of multiple and dead registrants, which the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting estimates at three million nationwide.

The lawmakers said this sheer number of spurious registrants can already “make or unmake a presidential candidate” especially now that the top two presidential candidates are locked in a close fight based on various surveys.