NAMFREL to COMELEC: 'We’ll be watching you'

MANILA, Feb. 9, 2010-A poll watchdog vowed to keep an eye on the conduct of the country's first ever automated in May to prevent massive fraud.

With the elections barely three months away, the National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) said the capabilities of the new system have not been fully established.

"People are understandably nervous that many things could go wrong or that it would simply facilitate wholesale cheating," Namfrel said in a statement released Tuesday.

The statement came a week after the Commission on Elections (Comelec) rejected Namfrel's petition to be accredited as a citizen's arm, citing the group's partiality to certain political sectors.

Namfrel's co-petitioner is the National Secretariat for Social Action of Justice and Peace (Nassa) of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

"Come 2010 elections, the Namfrel volunteers will reunite, and together with CBCP-Nassa and other electoral watchdogs, mobilize our countrymen to vigilance once more," the statement read.

"You cannot kill the Namfrel spirit," it added.

The poll body said that the poll watchdog failed to qualify because of the impartiality clause.

The Comelec said that Namfrel founding chairman Jose Conception is a known staunch critic of deposed President Estrada, who will again be running in the May elections.

It noted that Conception was among the most vocal personalities who called for Estrada's ouster in 2000.

Namfrel had links with another former president, the late Corazon Aquino, whose son is also running for President, the poll body said.

And Namfrel chairman Jose Cuisia was reported to have rubbed elbows with Aquino during a protest rally in Makati City against the Arroyo administration.

The Comelec's accusation, however, left a bad taste in the mouth of Namfrel.

"To deny Namfrel accreditation because two of its officials are allegedly 'partisan' is to insult the integrity and patriotism of its 5,000 volunteers-the youth, professionals, businessmen, religious, peasants, urban poor, labor-who come together during elections, set aside their personal preferences and unite in one goal: the conduct of free and fair elections," it said.

The commission also said it cannot anymore accredit Namfrel because it had given its nod to the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) as its citizens' arm. (Roy Lagarde)