THE National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) launched on Thursday, May 8, 2025, through a virtual media conference, the Namfrel Operation QR Count (2025) or OQC 2025, a way for Filipinos to participate in independently verifying the transmitted results of the 2025 National and Local Elections.
In the Namfrel OQC 2025, any person with a smart device and internet connection can contribute to verifying the transmitted results of the elections at the different polling places by scanning the QR codes of the Election Returns (ERs) posted outside the doors of polling places during the counting period.
The QR codes may be scanned using the Namfrel 2025 app, a Namfrel developed mobile application, which can now be downloaded from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
As an accredited citizens' arm of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), Namfrel will be receiving transmitted election results in real time, which Namfrel will make available to the public through the Namfrel website.
The election returns posted outside the polling places will be printed prior to transmission.
Results scanned from the QR codes of these election returns will be received by Namfrel HQ, and will then be matched with the transmitted results from the same polling places.
It will be possible to see in the Namfrel website, which transmitted results also received corresponding QR ER results data from the public.
Namfrel expects to receive from the public duplicate scans of the QR codes of the same ERs from polling places, which will further help strengthen the verification of the transmitted results from said precincts.
Any person can scan the ER QR codes from as many polling places as they can. ERs stay posted outside polling places for up to three days after election day.
"Everybody is encouraged to download the Namfrel 2025 app to help independently verify the transmitted election results in their own polling place, voting center, barangay, city and municipality. Every voter should be an observer. You can do this even if you are not a Namfrel volunteer. We especially encourage young people, and even local candidates and their supporters to download and use the Namfrel 2025 app to ensure that the votes in their communities are verified via the Namfrel OQC 2025," Namfrel national chairperson Lito Averia said during the virtual launch.
"We want the public to help independently verify the transmitted results using the election returns posted outside because these will be printed prior to electronic transmission. These are the same votes verified by the voters themselves while they were inserting their ballot through the automated counting machines," Averia added.
The Namfrel 2025 app is available for download today, for use on Election Day.
Google Play Store: https://bit.ly/NAppAndroid
Apple App Store: https://apple.co/3EZHqWe
For the 2025 elections, Namfrel volunteers in several areas of the country will also be able to scan -- using a separate, Namfrel-developed mobile application -- the QR codes of all the voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) receipts in select clustered precincts.
Comelec has allowed Namfrel to scan the QR codes of the VVPAT in 10 clustered precincts in each of the following regional groupings -- Northern Luzon, Southern Luzon, NCR, Visayas, Mindanao, and Barmm -- for a total of 60 clustered precincts.
Namfrel originally proposed a nationwide implementation. Namfrel requested to be allowed to scan the VVPAT QR codes as the VVPAT is the document closest to the ballot that an accredited citizens' arm like Namfrel is allowed to handle.
As the name suggests, the contents of the VVPAT are verified by voters themselves during the voting process. The Comelec requested Namfrel to submit in advance the list of clustered precincts where it proposed to scan the VVPAT, for the Comelec to be able to brief in advance the respective Comelec offices and electoral boards (EBs) that Namfrel volunteers will conduct the additional process in the said clustered precincts.
Namfrel expects to scan the VVPAT for about one hour in each clustered precinct, but it will be conducted while the EB goes through the counting and closing process.
To watch Namfrel's virtual launch of Operation QR Count 2025, follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/live/FakO1oWZr7c?si=W_XkbeEGasF4hk2U
Namfrel is the first citizen-led, national election monitoring organization in the world.
Since 1983, it has been accredited by the Comelec as its citizens' arm. During the 1984 Batasang Pambansa elections, Namfrel first conducted the Operation Quick Count (OQC) -- an unofficial parallel count using precinct-level results -- pioneering the use of what has come to be known worldwide as parallel vote tabulation (PVT).
The PVT has had many iterations as used by different election monitoring organizations around the world, but in some countries they are still being conducted like Namfrel's original method.
For the 2025 elections, Namfrel has again been accredited, and has fielded volunteers across the country to observe the pre-election, Election Day, and post-election periods.
For the elections, Namfrel will have its headquarters in Mandaluyong City where it will receive and consolidate observation reports from its volunteers nationwide.
Namfrel encourages Filipinos to continue to be vigilant and to help ensure that elections will be peaceful, and that the vote count will be transparent. (PR)