Election watchdogs strengthen monitoring for BSKE

Election watchdog organizations finalized their monitoring strategies and preparations for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections on Monday.

In a public media conference on Sunday, the National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections stated that they designated standby volunteers in several areas to monitor any incidents that may occur during the elections.

“Nakahanda na yung aming volunteers. In fact, ilang lingo nang nakahanda yan,” said NAMFREL Chairman Lito Aviera.

He added that NAMFREL developed an application through which Filipinos may submit verified statements for incident reports.

“Yung aming mga volunteers, may access naman sila dun sa report nga nung monitoring naman nila. So, bukod sa pagbabantay hinihikayat namin yung mga publiko na i-download kung meron silang iPhone o di kaya Android phone pwedeng i-download yung NAMFREL app para makapag-report ng incidents,” he added.

Similarly, the organization Kontra Daya also took to Social Media to track any incidents of electoral cheating, harassment, or violence that may occur during the BSKE period.

“Yung iba’t-ibang mga organisasyon, meron din sariling mga monitoring. Actually, nangyari na siya since last week yung monitoring ng campaign may natanggap na kaming pangilan-ngilang reports nga pero siyempre full force yan bukas,” said Kontra Daya Spokesperson Maded Batera III.

Kontra Daya had received reports of red tagging of candidates in several areas of the country like Cebu and Tondo; and even a report of physical blocking of COC filing in Batangas.

“We are collecting this data in order to make a statement that red tagging and all these forms of electoral harassment and, of course, violence that there is proof that there needs to be structural changes nga sa kung paano pinapatakbo yung elections,” Batera said.

Kontra Daya would be monitoring reports online through social media posts tagged with #KontraDaya and #VoteReportPH.

A public form had also been released for incident reports during the BSKE on Monday. — DVM, GMA Integrated News