Kuwait Times

Published Date: May 16, 2007

MANILA: International observers said they witnessed threats and vote-buying inside some precincts in the southern Philippines, raising questions yesterday about election manipulation in the unsettled region.

The criticism came as the arduous process of counting millions of votes by hand was under way from Monday's vote, with fresh violence claiming two more lives in a midterm election the national police chief declared "relatively peaceful." The Asian Network for Free Elections, a poll watchdog of 21 regional observers, said some areas in the southern Mindanao region upheld law and order during the polls, but chaos reigned elsewhere, with intimidation, threats and violence leaving "the general impression that the process is manipulated by outsiders." It warned that "the culture of impunity for election and political crime can fuel calls for alternative government that can provide justice for the people."

"Most of us were very surprised by the conduct of elections," Jessica Tulloch, a Chicago volunteer with the United Methodist Church, told The Associated Press.  "Members of our group were able to actually witness vote-buying taking place inside a precinct." She said in southern Marawi city, sample ballots were distributed with small currency notes attached, privacy was scant, and poll watchers were sitting next to voters, whispering to them.

"We assume they were suggesting which candidates should be voted," Tulloch said. "We ... also talked to minors who were able to vote several times. We also saw people who already voted several times and had more than one ink mark on their fingers." The head of the Commission on Elections, Benjamin Abalos, said he has received no reports of widespread cheating. "I am talking of initial reports," he said. "We have not received any report of massive cheating as has been feared before by the opposition." Filipinos were electing 12 out of 24 senators, all 236 House of Representatives members and nearly 17,500 governors, mayors and other local officials. Official results are weeks away.

The arduous process of counting millions of votes by hand was under way in the Philippines yesterday as fresh violence claimed two more lives, a day after the national police chief declared the midterm vote "relatively peaceful." Radio reports said two people, believed to be teachers, died after a fire swept a school voting precinct south of Manila overnight.

A witness told Radio DZMM he saw about five people pouring gasoline on ballot boxes inside the school, where the victims were trapped. Police were investigating.  The deaths came on top of eight people killed in Monday's election, which brought the campaign season death toll to 121.

Turnout was projected at three-quarters of 45 million registered voters.
Five masked gunmen barged into a school voting precinct south of Manila overnight, poured gasoline on ballot boxes and torched the building, leaving a teacher and another person trapped inside a bathroom where they died, police said. Three others were hospitalized, police said.  The deaths brought to 126 the number of people killed since campaigning started in January, police said.

Still, that was well below the 189 deaths in 2004, leading national police chief Oscar Calderon to call the elections "relatively peaceful." Investors also appeared relieved at the relatively smooth conduct, with the market closing yesterday at a 10-year high.  Turnout was projected at 75 percent of 45 million registered voters.

The House of Representatives was likely to remain in the hands of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's backers, which would doom any effort to launch a third impeachment bid against her over allegations that she fixed the 2004 election.

Arroyo's six years in power have been a mixed bag of steadying the economy while lurching from crisis to crisis, including coup plots, terrorist attacks and natural disasters. But disenchantment with Arroyo has been offset by a rising stock market and the peso reaching its strongest level against the US dollar since October 2000.  - AP