Press Release
April 19, 2007

KIKO URGES COMELEC TO RELEASE NAMES AND PHOTOS OF
COMELEC OFFICIALS IN CRITICAL AREAS

Kiko urges COMELEC to release to the public the name and photos and other personal circumstances such as home or office addresses of COMELEC officials or personnel in critical areas so that the public may know who they are and may opt to seek them out to ensure that these areas the results of the elections are safeguarded.

The reason for the proposal is the following: It aims to 1.) Foster greater transparency and accountability as it places the COMELEC official concerned on notice that he or she is being watched by a vigilant public and 2.) To allow for the public to seek these officials in order to coordinate efforts for clean and honest elections.

"I also appeal to the media to help disseminate the information regarding the identities of these COMELEC officials in critical areas or hot spots so that the public may get to know them. I would prefer that the public get to know these officials so that we can all work together to safeguard the elections, but if certain COMELEC officials in hotspot areas are uncooperative then it would be best to know who these COMELEC officials are, where they live or work so that the public may monitor their acts and report questionable acts if any are committed," Kiko said.

In addition, Kiko urged the PPRCV to prepare to release to the public the results of the elections by province immediately as soon as they are known. "This too will help prevent election fraud as the results announced publicly at the soonest possible time, based on official election documents in the municipal level, will prevent would-be dagdag bawas operators from attempting to change the results as the same have already been announced. The media would do well to announce on national TV or radio results by province as they are known locally so as to give the public an idea as to who won in what provinces. This can be likened to the monitoring of US elections wherein the result in is state is made public immediately to guide the voters as to the partial results as they come in," Kiko ended.

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