MANILA, 12 November 2003 — Taking the cue from President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday agreed to let the citizen’s poll watchdog National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) to conduct its own count in the May 2004 elections.

The Comelec, however, refused to call it a “quick count” as the Namfrel had been calling the exercise since 1986.

It would just be a “vote count,” said Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos, who explained that a Namfrel “quick count” is no longer necessary since the commission’s own count would be quicker with its system now computerized.

Earlier on Monday, Comelec spokesman Ferdinand Rafanan said the Namfrel should stick to helping the commission with voter education, information dissemination, poll watching, and even the auditing of the votes .

Rafanan said Namfrel’s help was not needed in the counting of votes because the commission would be able to readily report the results of the elections, even with just a partial implementation of the election modernization law.

But Abalos later reversed their position after President Arroyo was quoted as saying that she hoped the Comelec would let Namfrel conduct a quick count.

Presidential Executive Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo also urged the Comelec to abandon its hard-line stance, saying the participation of Namfrel in the counting “can only enhance the people’s trust in the election process,”

Opposition Sen. Aquilino Pimentel added to the pressure by saying that Namfrel’s quick count was a safeguard against high-tech cheating that unscrupulous politicians and poll officials may resort to in next year’s computerized elections.

“Namfrel will not be able to effectively perform its role as the Comelec citizen’s arm without the usual quick count as a counter-check to the official tabulation of the poll body,”said Pimentel, who lost in the 1995 senatorial election because of large-scale cheating blamed on corrupt poll officials.

Namfrel executive director Telibert Laoc yesterday said that they will know tomorrow if the Comelec would make its decision official.

He explained that the Comelec did not want to use the term “quick count” as it implied that the poll body was “slow.” He also said the Comelec “seemed amenable” to letting Namfrel conduct a vote count as long as it reports the source of its data, the percentage of precincts counted and other details.