Kontra Daya to Comelec: Ensure clean, honest polls
With less than six months to go before the May 2022 polls, Kontra Daya has called on the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to ensure that the upcoming elections will be clean and honest.
In a letter addressed to Comelec Chairman Sheriff Abas, the group urged the poll body to undertake the following:
-Rescind the contract with F2 Logistics Philippines to avoid any conflict of interest in the delivery, warehousing and storage of election paraphernalia.
-Publicly call out, through statements and public fora, political parties and candidates who clearly engage in premature campaigning and vote-buying in the guise of “consultations” and “ayuda.”
- Investigate the candidates’ use of government resources in the conduct of their campaigns, including the hijacking of government activities for political ends, use of official vehicles for election-related activities and excessive airtime on government media.
-Denounce the NTF-ELCAC, PNP, AFP and other groups and individuals who are engaged in red-tagging candidates and party-list groups, including some election watchdogs.
-Remind the PNP and AFP that red-tagging and other forms of negative campaigning compromise their non-partisan role in the elections.
-Ensure a public vetting of individuals who will assume the post of Comelec commissioners.
-Demand that President Duterte, himself a senatorial candidate, exercise prudence in selecting the next Comelec commissioners whose terms expire in February 2022.
"Kontra Daya remains committed to ensuring clean and honest elections on May 9, 2022. We need not wait, however, for election day to witness the occurrence of fraud. The efforts to steal the elections are underway through the use of massive government and private resources, widespread disinformation, state terror and foreign intervention. So much is at stake in the 2022 polls that the people should prepare and mobilize against fraud as early as now," the group said.
"Our people are the best deterrent to fraud. Let us help ensure that despite the historical drawbacks of Philippine elections, the authentic voice of the people will be heard and that those who are determined to undermine the poll results will be exposed and ultimately fail," added Kontra Daya.