14 May 2007, marked another milestone in Philippine history. People all over the country casted their votes to elect 12 new senators, congressmen/women to represent the various congressional districts all over the country, and their respective local government officials (Governors, Mayors and Councilors). Despite the Commission on Elections (Comelec) official pronouncements that the elections was generally peaceful and orderly, several incidences of election related violence were reported all over the country. In the province of Lanao del Sur, at least 14 Municipalities were declared to have a failure of elections due to massive vote buying, reported incidences of harrassment, ballot box snatching and disenfranchisement of voters. This incidences were heard to have been happening in other provinces, municipalities and cities in other parts of the country. This years election was said to be more "dirty" compared to the last national and local elections in 2004.
At around 9:30 in the evening, my wife, son and I went around the city center to observe the proceedings of the counting. We were a bit dissappointed when we arrived there as there was not much going on so far. So we decided to visit the National Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) Operation Quick Count headquarters located in the Xavier University Gym. We had several friends there that volunteered to help in the operations. Nothing much was also happening in the quick count center. People were still waiting for the results from the prescints to arrive. The general mood was that of anticipation and people were raring to start work. Some were starting to get bored already.
In as much as I wanted to stay and observe the NAMFRELs Operation (take photos of the volunteers as they go about the canvassing), I had a scheduled early morning flight for Manila the next day so I had to leave early.
