BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
ELECTION WATCH / BREAKING NEWS
May 15, 2007 – 9:33am

The first nominee of the progressive party-list group Bayan Muna (People First) has urged media to include reports on the counting of party-list votes in their coverage of the senatorial and local elections.

Satur Ocampo, who represented Bayan Muna and was House Deputy Minority Leader in the 13th Congress, cited what he described as “almost zero coverage” of the party-list votes’ counting. “More than 18 hours after polls closed, the media has yet to report on the votes cast for any and all party-list groups, Ocampo said.

“We are deeply concerned over the lack and shortage of information on the party-list elections,” Ocampo added. “Such a situation serves the purposes of those who seek to subvert the party-list system and deny victory for winning party-list groups.”

Another progressive party-list group, the Gabriela Women’s Party (GWP), had earlier decried what it described as the harassment of its pollwatchers and those of other progressive party-list groups as well as the Genuine Opposition in the Southern Tagalog provinces of Laguna and Batangas.

GWP’s first nominee Liza Maza last night said soldiers of the 730th Combat Group of the Philippine Air Force drove away accredited pollwatchers of her group and Bayan Muna, Anakpawis (Toiling Masses), Kabataan (Youth) Party-List, and Suara Bangsamoro (Voice of the Moro People) Party from polling centers in Nasugbu, Batangas. In the town of Lian, also in Batangas; and in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, soldiers asked for the results of the elections – particularly the senatorial race – supposedly for quick-count purposes, Maza also said.

GWP also earlier reported that 100 of its members were disenfranchised in Tondo.

Meanwhile, delegates of the Peoples’ International Observers Mission (Peoples’ IOM) reported a new manner of disenfranchisement affecting party-list groups. The Peoples’ IOM team in Nueva Ecija was able to interview voters who reported not voting for any party-list group or voting for Bantay (The True Marcos Loyalist), which has retired Army Maj. Gen. Jovito Palaparan, Jr. as nominee, for fear of retaliation from soldiers.

“Even the Namfrel (National Movement for Free Elections) ignored the party-list race, leaving the public blind,” Ocampo said.

“The media should reconsider the seeming exclusion of the party-list race in their coverage plans,” Ocampo also said. “The underrepresented and marginalized sectors which the party-list system hopes to represent must be provided timely and accurate information.” (Bulatlat.com)

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