Kabataan Partylist

Kabataan Party-list, the leading youth party-list participating these elections, today decried the ‘very dirty and disappointing course of the 2007 elections’.

Kabataan said that the recently concluded voting process and the ongoing counting and canvassing of votes are ‘cause for youth disillusionment in the Philippine electoral process’.

“We negate statements by the administration, the Comelec and the AFP that the 2007 elections is generally peaceful. Nothing can be farther from the truth,” said Raymond Palatino, national president and nominee of Kabataan Party-list.

“We are not too naïve to have hoped that these elections may be different from the past ones. But we also do not have to be political analysts or election experts to perceive that the 2007 elections is not what the administration, the Comelec or the AFP paint it to be.”

Palatino cited the continuing culture of impunity marring every election, these elections no exemption with more than 100 election-related killings.

He also said that the Comelec appears to be turning a blind eye to numerous cases of electoral fraud and violence being reported in various media outfits and poll watch institutions. “These are not isolated cases but the reality of perhaps the most dirty electoral process in the country and what we have are Comelec and administration officials patting each others’ backs for a so-called job well done.

Palatino added that youth voters have also expressed disappointment over the lack of transparency and the ‘marginalization of party-lists’ in the ongoing media and NAMFREL quick counts.

“We demand that media counts and especially NAMFREL give due attention and import to party-list election results. We are placing much faith in party-lists that truly represent marginalized sectors like the youth. The lack of transparency in the party-list elections contribute greatly to the administration’s ploy to downplay and destroy the very objective of the party-list system,” Palatino said.

Kabataan party-list said that it is also conducting its own quick-count in coordination with Bayan Muna, Gabriela, Anakpawis and Suara Bangsamoro. Results of the quick count will be divulged to the media later this week ‘to counter NAMFREL’s apparent malicious trending in the party-list election results.’ ###

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 17th, 2007 at 9:14 am and is filed under News and Press releases, Government. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.