Loopholes in Philippines election—M.P.

Press, 19 May 1984, Page 24

Loopholes in Philippines election—M.P.

NZPA staff correspondent Hong Kong Voters in the Philippines elections had not been offered a full range of alternatives, the New Zealand Labour member of Parliament, Ms Helen Clark, has said from Manila. “People voted but they didn’t have a range of options,” said Ms Clark, who

was invited to observe the elections by the Opposition movement to boycott the elections. Some of the Opposition candidates were former supporters of President Ferdinand Marcos who had fallen out with him. Most candidates came from similar social, political, and economic backgrounds to the Government, she said. It had been difficult to

get a clear idea of what the Opposition stood for other than opposing President Marcos, she said. His 18-year rule has come under heavy pressure since the assassination of the Opposition leader, Mr Benigno Aquino, last year. Ms Clark said the Government controlled Commission on Elections — the final arbiter on the vote counting — had been warning that initial data release

by Namfrel was not complete or accurate. In previous elections, ballot box fraud had resulted in big changes between polling day returns and the official result, she said.

The Government has, however, admitted that the Opposition had done well in Manila. The Agriculture Minister, Mr Arturo Tanca. has conceded defeat to his Unido Party rival and at least five other Ministers

look like losing their seats. Unido looked like winning 15 of the 21 Manila seats at stake, according to reports last night. The ruling K.B.L. Party is expected to maintain control of the rural areas of the Philippines, observers said. For a couple of days it seemed that rural procedures had become more democratic but, with accusations of ballot snatching and rigging and assertions that polling observers and electors had been terrorised, it seemed to be reverting to normal, they said. Ms Clark, with two parliamentarians from Japan and one from India was invited to observe the elections by the boycott alliance led by Agapito “Butz” Aquino, brother of the slain political leader. Poll results appeared to indicate the call for a boycott had been ignored. Ms Clark said she thought that as Mr Marcos would retain power after the elections and nothing would change, the alliance had probably been justified in calling for a boycott. “I don’t believe the elections were fair,” she said. “The registration procedures had loopholes a mile wide.” Ms Clark said the tragedy of the Marcos regime was that it had made the emergence of any democratic opposition almost impossible. Because Mr Marcos had frozen out the democratic possibilities, the country would turn to a Marxist alternative, she said.

Although there were some liberal democratic nationalists in the Opposition movement, there was nothing equivalent to socialism.

This meant there was a huge gap between Mr Marcos and the Opposition politicians on the one hand, both following broadly similar policies, and Marxists on the other, she said.