NAMFREL won’t count Maguindanao votes

By Ronron
May 20, 2007

The National Citizen’s Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) will not include in its quick count operations the votes from Maguindanao province after the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in the province refused to give the accredited citizen’s arm its copy of the election returns (ER).

Eric Alvia, Secretary-General of NAMFREL, said Sunday that NAMFREL-Maguindanao and Shariff Kabunsuan Chairman Fr. Eduardo Tanudtanud reported about the local Comelec’s action despite an order from the main office to do otherwise.

“Our volunteers were told that municipal election officers issued a verbal order to withhold release of all copies of ER’s, including NAMFREL’s sixth copy,” Tanudtanud said in a statement released yesterday by the NAMFREL national leadership in Manila.

“In most cases, municipal Comelec officers did not recognize the appointment of our NAMFREL municipal chairpersons,” he added.

As a result of what he calls as “systematic withholding of the ER’s to NAMFREL,” Tanudtanud said NAMFREL-Maguindanao “will not be able to announce quick count results for the elections in the province.”

And even if the ER’s are made available to NAMFREL-Maguindanao in the coming days, Tanudtanud said they will no longer include the results in the quick count since withholding those “casts doubt on the integrity of the sixth copy of the election returns.”

“It’s too late if they will give the ER’s because we will still question the validity of those ER’s,” Alvia said.

In his statement, Tanudtanud said no other persons, including NAMFREL volunteers, were allowed entry to the centralized counting of votes for all 22 municipalities in the Maguindanao Provincial Capitol, except for members of the Board of Election Inspectors.

To prove their allegation of irregularity in the Maguindanao counting, the NAMFREL leadership gave the media yesterday a copy of the Comelec’s Very Urgent Memorandum dated May 11, 2007 for all regional, provincial, city and municipal election officers regarding the right of NAMFREL to get the sixth copy of the ER’s.

“Please be advised that Resolution 7815, dated 26 January 2007, clearly states that the sixth copy shall go to the citizen’s arm authorized by the Commission to conduct an unofficial count,” reads part of the memo signed by Comelec Executive Director Pio Jose Joson.

“Further, Commission En Banc Resolution on SPP No. 07-001 accredits the National Citizen’s Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) as a citizen’s arm of the Commission authorized to conduct an unofficial quick count subject to conditions enumerated therein,” the memo added./DMS