Official Statement of NAMFREL-Maguindanao

Got this email from Leah Navarro:

> Official statement of Namfrel-Maguindanao on the Quick
> Count of Elections in the Province of Maguindanao
>
> To date, NAMFREL-Maguindanao does not have NAMFREL's
> 6th copy of election returns from 22 municipalities of
> Maguindanao. Our volunteers reported the following:
>
> 1. Except for members of the Board of Election
> Inspectors (BEI), no other persons or organizations,
> including NAMFREL volunteers, were allowed access to
> the centralized counting of votes for all
> municipalities in the Maguindanao Provincial Capitol.
>
> 2. Our volunteers were told that municipal election
> officers issued a verbal order to withhold release of
> all copies of the ERs, including NAMFREL's 6th copy.
> In most cases, municipal COMELEC officers did not
> recognize the appointment of our NAMFRL municipal
> chairpersons.
>
> Since our quick count is based on the NAMFREL copies
> which were not made available to us,
> NAMFREL-Maguindanao will not be able to announce quick
> count results for the elections in the province. In
> view of what we perceive as systematic withholding of
> the ERs to NAMFREL that casts doubts on the integrity
> of the 6th copy of the election returns, we will still
> not include the Maguindanao results in our quick count
> even if they are not made available to us in the
> following days.
>
> May 19, 2007, Cotabato City.
>
>
> (Sgd.) Fr. Eduardo G. Tanudtanud, OMI
> Chairman, NAMFREL Maguindanao and
> Shariff Kabungsuan