The National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) has urged Filipinos to help guard the election process by being an election observer in the May 2022 polls.
In a statement on Monday, April 11, the poll watchdog group said it is their belief that all voters can be citizen election observers, or Bantay ng Bayan ("sentinels of the people"), to ensure that their votes are "counted correctly, and that the elections are held in a way that is fair to all stakeholders."
Namfrel also said that citizen election observers need not be a member of any election monitoring organization, political parties, or any election management body.
"Any Filipino can be a citizen election observer, whether they are campaigning for or against a candidate, or are not campaigning, or are undecided," the group said.
Namfrel even released a video, which can be viewed here: https://bit.ly/2022NAMFRELBantayNgBayan, enumerating the different violations that citizens can easily look out for during the different phases of the electoral process.
The poll watchdog group said tye video also outlines how and to whom citizens can report -- or seek assistance from to officially report -- these violations, which include the Commission on Elections (Comelec) itself, election monitoring organizations like Namfrel, the authorities like the PNP, political parties, and especially the media.
"Namfrel encourages the distribution or sharing of this video to reach as many people as possible," the group said.
In the coming weeks prior to Election Day, Namfrel said, it will be issuing more guidelines on how ordinary citizens may participate in helping ensure that the 2022 elections will be transparent, free, and fair.
Since 1983, Namfrel has been accredited by the Comelec as its citizens' arm. For the 2022 elections, the group has again been accredited, and has started fielding volunteers across the country to observe election-related activities.
Namfrel encouraged non-partisan Filipinos to sign up as volunteers at www.namfrel.org.ph, to officially represent the group in the different voting centers as election day observers.