The foreign visitors were referring to the chaotic conduct of the elections especially in Marawi City where the People’s IOM team interviewed voters who were able to vote twice. There were also instances where sample ballots were handed to voters through the windows and, in some instances, poll watchers dictating to voters what names to write in their ballots. “It seems everybody can just go to inside the precincts,” said Jesscica Tulloch, a delegate from the U.S. Soldiers were also seen roaming around the polling precincts and canvassing area in Marawi Sity amid the chaos in the voting and canvassing.
The Collation of Findings and Initial Recommendations distributed by the People’s IOM in a press conference on May 18 read, “Strong military presence, intimidation and harassment of voters: the military played an extraordinarily active role in the elections, violating its proper role in a democratic society. Extra-judicial killings, campaigning for and against particular candidates, disenfranchising voters of opposition candidates, intimidation and harassment, deployment in opposition-influenced communities are many of the ways that the military used and overstepped its constitutional duty.”
“It is clear that there are patterns of chaos and intimidation. We have witnessed events that created a climate of fear, cheating, violence, fraud and inefficiency,” Boehringer said. “With this kind of environment,” Boehringer said, “it is impossible to have fair elections.”(Bulatlat.com)
