The Palau Election Commission completed the tabulation of 1,217 absentee ballots at 1 a.m. yesterday.
Chin and running mate Sen. Alan Seid maintained their lead with 3,027 votes.
Toribiong and Delegate Kerai Mariur came in second with 2,526 votes. Senate President Surangel Whipps and presidential chief of staff Billy Kuartei came in third with 2,248 votes while Sen. Joshua Koshiba and Peleliu Gov. Jackson Ngiraingas finished last with 1,387.
Allegations of voting irregularities slowed the counting of the absentee ballots which was supposed to start at 2 p.m. on Tuesday.
The tabulation began six hours later after election officers cross-checked the names of the absentee voters with the voter registration list to make sure that there was no double voting.
Sen. Alfonso Diaz, who is also a radio broadcaster, claimed that he had received calls from Palauan residents on Guam and Saipan who told him they never requested the absentee ballots that were supposedly solicited by the representatives of certain presidential candidates.
The election commission distributed 1,798 absentee ballots.
It received 765 ballots from Guam, 252 from Saipan, 147 from the U.S. mainland and foreign countries, and 53 from Hawaii.
The commission said there were 14,190 registered voters for the primary, but the voter turnout was only 65 percent.
For this year’s general elections, there are 43 candidates for the 13-seat Senate and 43 for the 16-seat House of Delegates.
Voters will also decide whether to ratify 22 proposed constitutional amendments.
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