CITIZENS COALITION FOR ARMM ELECTORAL REFORMS, INC.

SEC. Registration No. CN200626305

Cotabato City, Philippines
Tel. No. (064)421-9345
Citizens CARE

May 14, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ELECTION CONCERNS REMAIN IN THE ARMM, DESPITE AUTOMATION

Manila: ARMM Election Monitor Citizens CARE reports significant improvements on

the speed of vote counting, but notes that patronage, warlordism, and fraud continue to
characterize elections in the region.

Citizens CARE, the COMELEC accredited pollwatcher in the ARMM, deployed 6750
volunteers to observe every single of the ARMM’s 3377 clustered precincts. This
followed a three months period of facilitating local community consultations and 2552
voter education sessions in all the region’s barangays.

Citizens CARE observer noted a substantial decrease of violence after the initial flare
during the November massacre, as well as notable speed increases in the counting and
transmission of results, which decreased opportunities for election day fraud.

However, the established complex of election fraud unfortunately remains intact and
beyond the reach of automation. Citizens CARE monitors noted specifically:

• Vote Buying: Observers noted that vote buying remained not only as rampant but
was actually more visible. In Tawi-Tawi, candidate representatives went house to
house soliciting votes in exchange for payment;
• Threats leading to isolated failure of elections: in 7 towns of Lanao del Sur,
COMELEC declared a failure of elections due to the fact that BEI members did not
show up due to intimidation by local political candidates;
• Slow transmission: Canvassing and transmission speed in the ARMM remained
significantly under the national average, due to the peace and order situation, as well
as connectivity challenges. In all 5 provinces, power outages led to a delay in
opening, voting and transmission. In Maguindanao, 37 municipalities had challenges
receiving data from precincts, leading to a delay of proclamation of congressional
candidates by 48 hours. As of today, 4 towns remain uncanvassed. These delays
exposed the system to external risks;
• Non-use of PCOS machines: Several areas (Bacolod, 8 municipalities in Lanao del
Sur) in the ARMM refused to utilize PCOS machines at the precincts after problems
were discovered during the testing and sealing. In Barimgbingan, Ditsaan Ramain,
one PCOS machine was burned. In Paraitan, the PCOS was not deployed due to
threats from a local official to shoot it;
• Secrecy of the ballot: as in the rest of the country, there was widespread joint
voting, and ballot secrecy folders were largely absent;
• Ballot fraud: in various locations, observers noted BEI members and voters filling
out several ballots. In Kapatagan, one voter received two ballots and was filling them
out in the immediate vicinity of watchers. Another repeatedly filled out ballots and
fed them into the PCOS;
• Violence: Conduct of the Voting was generally peaceful with isolated incidents in
Northern Kabuntalan (Brgy. Kapimpilan), where supports of opposing candidates
engaged in a firefight that resulted in 2 deaths. In Datu Salibo, Datu Unsay, Paglat,
and SK Pendatun municipalities in Maguindanao, unidentified groups lobbed mortar
shells at the vicinity of precincts. In Mangal, Sumisip, election materials and official
ballots were forcibly taken by a private army group. One PCOS machine was
destroyed in Barira, Maguindanao.

Salic Ibrahim, Chairman of Citizen’s CARE stated: “Automating the elections has
brought significant improvements to the speed of counting the votes. Unfortunately, these
improvements were not sufficient to break the established system of command votes, in
which political leaders dictate people’s choices, and continues to thwart the true exercise
of the right of suffrage.”

Citizens CARE will start working immediate with COMELEC and other relevant
authorities to improve the situation ahead of the 2011 ARMM elections.

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Information on Citizens Care

Citizens CARE is the leading election monitoring and reform group in the ARMM and
was founded in June 2005. For the last 5 elections, it was mandated by COMELEC to
conduct poll watching in various precincts including assistance to voters in the 2010
National and Local Elections in the ARMM. CCARE deployed 6750 volunteers covering
2,552 barangays in 118 municipalities including 4 Cities of Marawi, Cotabato, Lamitan
and Isabela throughout the ARMM region.in its 5 provinces and 4 cities.

In the pursuit of its mandate, Citizens CARE established partnerships with thirty six (36)
non government organizations, civil society organizations, people’s organizations and
academe, civic groups, media and communication groups who participated in monitoring
the whole electoral process.