“With many considering the next national elections as a make-or-break scenario for the Philippines, it is thus crucial to make sure that the right to vote is exercised properly and that clean and fair polls have to be observed as best as possible. “
Members and supporters of senatorial candidate Neri Colmenares and Makabayan partylist groups received death threats, were harassed and labeled as communists and supporters of New People’s Army (NPA). The Makabayan bloc has been critical of the Duterte administration.
Babae Network, whose volunteers recently observed the Commission on Elections’ Final Testing and Sealing, said they found irregularities and long-standing problems of the automated elections such as paper jams, unreadable printouts from the vote counting machines, to name a few.