National Citizens' Movement For Free Elections
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The National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections or NAMFREL is an election watchdog in the
Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
. It was the first and one of the most famous election watch campaigns. It is known to have introduced non-partisan national election monitoring to the Philippines after exposing the issues involved with the 1986 snap elections. NAMFREL was co-founded by Jose S. Concepcion Jr., and was its first National Chairperson. NAMFREL was formally organized in October 1983 as an offshoot of the New Voters Registration Committee, which was formed in the 1960s. It currently has the support of more than 140 benefactors and 125 organizations. Its current national chairperson is Augusto C. Lagman. NAMFREL's goal is to ensure "free, orderly and honest elections" in the Philippines. It is a non-partisan organization with over 250,000 member-volunteers from different religious, civic, business, professional, labor, youth, educational, and non-government organizations. The
Commission on Elections An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...
(Comelec) has accredited NAMFREL as its "citizens' arm" since 1986 to conduct manual parallel counts, which it called "Operation Quick Count". In 1986, NAMFREL mobilized 500,000 volunteers nationwide to guard the snap presidential elections. President then dictator
Ferdinand Marcos Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. (September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino lawyer, politician, dictator, and Kleptocracy, kleptocrat who served as the tenth president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled the c ...
declared himself the winner of the election; the NAMFREL count, however, showed that
Corazon Aquino María Corazón "Cory" Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino (; January 25, 1933 – August 1, 2009) was a Filipino politician who served as the 11th president of the Philippines and the first woman president in the country, from Presidency of Corazon ...
won. In the days that followed, the EDSA People Power revolt took place, sweeping Aquino to power. For the May 2010 automated Philippine presidential elections NAMFREL was not accredited to conduct its own count. Instead, the organization conducted a nationwide election observation mission called "Bantay ng Bayan" ("sentinels of the people"). Presently, NAMFREL is also active internationally, its officers and volunteers having worked as trainers, observer team members, election administrators and resource persons in 35 countries, and have sent its volunteers as the official Philippine observer delegation to
Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...
during the 1998 parliamentary elections there, as well as in Indonesia in 1999 for the Presidential elections after the fall of
Suharto Suharto (8 June 1921 – 27 January 2008) was an Indonesian Officer (armed forces), military officer and politician, and dictator, who was the second and longest serving president of Indonesia, serving from 1967 to 1998. His 32 years rule, cha ...
. In 1998, NAMFREL representatives attended the
International IDEA The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) is an intergovernmental organization that works to support and strengthen democratic institutions and processes around the world, to develop sustainable, ef ...
conference in
Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
.


See also

* Philippine electoral crisis, 2005 * Comando Con Venezuela


References


External links


Official NAMFREL Website

PCIJ profile of Jose S. Concepcion, Jr.
{{DEFAULTSORT:National Citizens' Movement For Free Elections Elections in the Philippines Corruption in the Philippines Election and voting-related organizations Non-profit organizations based in the Philippines Organizations established in 1983