mandate. This, despite the disqualification case filed against him by private respondent. This further lends support to our decision to bar his disqualification insofar as the May 11, 1998 elections is concerned. Indeed, in election cases, it is fundamental that the peoples will be at all times upheld. As eloquently stressed in Frivaldo v. Commission on Elections[25]-This Court has time and again liberally and equitably construed the electoral laws of our country to give fullest effect to the manifest will of our people, for in case of doubt, political laws must be interpreted to give life and spirit to the popular mandate freely expressed through the ballot. Otherwise stated, legal niceties and technicalities cannot stand in the way of the sovereign will. Consistently, we have held: x x x (L)aws governing election contests must be liberally construed to the end that the will of the people in the choice of public officials may not be defeated by mere technical objections (Benito v. Commission on Elections, 235 SCRA 436, 442 [August 17, 1994]). Finally, we see no error in the COMELECs rejection of private respondents move to be declared as Mayor on account of petitioners disqualification. To begin with, the issue had been rendered moot and academic by the expiration of petitioners challenged term of office. Second, even in law and jurisprudence, private respondent cannot claim any right to the office. As held by the COMELEC, the succession to the office of the mayor shall be in accordance with the provisions of the Local Government Code which, in turn, provides that the vice mayor concerned shall become the mayor.[26] Also, in Nolasco v. Commission on Elections,[27] citing Reyes v. Commission on Elections,[28] we already rejected, once and for all, the position that the candidate who obtains the second highest number of votes may be proclaimed the winner in the event of disqualification or failure of the candidate with the highest number of votes to hold office. This court ratiocinated thus That the candidate who obtains the second highest number of votes may not be proclaimed winner in case the winning candidate is