Namfrel says it has no links to 1Sambayan


The National Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) on Wednesday, June 16, said it does not support any specific political candidate or party as it remains non-partisan.

Namfrel

The poll watchdog group issued the statement in response to an article linking Namfrel to 1Sambayan.

"The article alleges the links since the 1Sambayan app hostname server has Namfrel's name in it, and that a URL that contains the 1Sambayan name redirects to Namfrel's voter registration campaign website that is still under development - 'Vote for Us' - a project that enjoins people to register and vote in the 2022 National and Local Elections and to disseminate information about the coming elections," it said.

Namfrel said it engaged an independent third party applications development company for the project that uses its own test servers for various projects, which happens to include the 1Sambayan app.

"To say that organizations using the same third party servers are related to each other solely because of such shared third party server use, is wrong and misleading," the group said.

Namfrel stressed it does not support any specific political candidate or party as it remains non-partisan.

"Namfrel continues to support ways to ensure the holding of honest, credible, and clean elections, and reiterates its call on reforms to make the elections more secure, open and transparent," it said.

Established in 1957, NAMFREL has been a perennial partner of the Commission on Elections as its citizens arm.