Mrs Wood sees vote-buying

Press, 13 February 1986, Page 6

Mrs Wood sees vote-buying

PA Wellington The National Party president, Mrs Sue Wood, says she observed votebuying in the Philippines during her week-end visit as a member of an international observer delegation.

Mrs Wood said in Wellington this week that two Filipino women approached her in Manila during the week-end voting.

“Two women came rushing up to me in a highly distressed! state saying vote buying is going on.” When she investigated she discovered a young man with a wad of money who was distributing cards with a photograph of President Marcos on them. Would-be voters were given 20 pesos ($1.90) before they voted and if they could subsequently provide evidence of voting for President Marcos they were given another 20 pesos.

Mrs Wood said that as she moved towards the young man he leapt over a wall. That was the only

evidence she saw of votebuying. The observer delegation, from 19 nations, watched the election in 15 Phillipines provinces. Mrs Wood said she spent most of her time in Manila. Delegation members observed intimidation and a lack of respect for electoral procedures, apart from vote-buying. Reading from an official delegation telex, Mrs Wood said the differences in counts affecting President Marcos and his challenger, Mrs Corazon Aquino, damaged the credibility of the electoral process. “In the category of abuses designed to affect the outcome, we saw many instances of votebuying, attempts at intimidation, snatching ballot boxes, and tampered election returns,” Mrs Wood said. She referred to the official Commission on Elections (Comelec) in the Philippines and the volunteer National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel). “In some areas Nam-

frel, the accredited arm of Comelec, was excluded from polling stations in violation of a range of previous agreements reached regarding access,” she said. In limited areas the system of safeguards seemed to break down completely. There, those responsible for ruling on complaints were unavailable or unresponsive. Mrs Wood said the observer team would keep technical experts in Manila, to collect information, analyse results, and observe the activities of institutions designed to provide legal redress.