The election was “not free and fair”.
Séverine De Laveleye, a Belgian parliamentarian, said this as she presented the interim report of the International Observer Mission (IOM) on the May 9 elections.De Laveleye, who is an IOM commissioner, said the election was “marred by a higher level of failure of the electronic voting system than ever before,” saying that these were likewise observed:
• Rampant vote-buying
• Disturbing levels of state and military-orchestrated red-tagging
• Incidents of deadly violence
The IOM said the election “did not meet the standard of free and fair [election] because of these prevailing conditions that robbed the voters of access to reliable information, access to the voting places without intimidation, and a credible vote counting system”.
De Laveleye said the widespread irregularities and violence undermined the democratic process that “took place in the most repressive context since the time of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos”.
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