The National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) said on Monday, April 11, 2022 that it is encouraging all Filipinos to guard the election process in all its phases, from the pre-election period, to election day, to the post-election period.
This is in line with Namfrel’s belief that all voters can be citizen election observers, or Bantay ng Bayan (“sentinels of the people”), to ensure that their votes are counted correctly, and that the elections are held in a way that is fair to all stakeholders.
Namfrel said that citizen election observers need not be a member of any election monitoring organization like Namfrel, or of political parties, or any election management body.
Any Filipino can be a citizen election observer, whether they are campaigning for or against a candidate, or are not campaigning, or are undecided.
In a video it released on Monday (which can be viewed here: https://bit.ly/2022NAMFRELBantayNgBayan), Namfrel enumerates the different violations that citizens can easily look out for during the different phases of the electoral process. It also outlines how and to whom citizens can report -- or seek assistance from to officially report -- these violations, which include the Commission on Elections (Comelec) itself, election monitoring organizations like Namfrel, the authorities like the Philippine National Police, political parties, and especially the media. Namfrel encourages the distribution or sharing of this video to reach as many people as possible.
In the coming weeks prior to election day, Namfrel will be issuing more guidelines on how ordinary citizens may participate in helping ensure that the 2022 elections will be transparent, free and fair.
Namfrel is the first citizens-led, national election monitoring organization in the world. Since 1983, it has been accredited by the Comelec as its citizens’ arm. For the 2022 elections, Namfrel has again been accredited, and has started fielding volunteers across the country to observe election-related activities. Namfrel encourages non-partisan Filipinos to sign up as volunteers at www.namfrel.org.ph, to officially represent Namfrel in the different voting centers as election day observers.