MANILA, Philippines?Majority of Filipino voters believe the presence of independent observers in the May elections would add confidence that the proceedings would be clean and honest, and that it would help deter violence, a Social Weather Stations survey found.

Of 2,100 registered voters interviewed from February 24 to 28, a total of 74 percent said independent observers would "greatly or somewhat" add confidence that elections would be clean.

Twenty percent said they would add little confidence, and 6 percent said they would not add confidence.

Eighty percent said their presence would help "a lot or some" in deterring or reducing election-related violence. Sixteen percent said it would help only a little, and 4 percent said it would not help at all.

SWS defined independent observers as people who would "check that voting in the May 2010 elections [would] be clean and fair."

There were more voters unaware that there would be independent observers (53 percent) than those who were aware (47 percent).

Sixty-five percent of respondents preferred Filipino observers. Twenty-four percent preferred both Filipino and foreign observers, while 11 percent preferred foreign observers.

The survey, which had a sampling error margin of plus-or-minus 2.2 percentage points, was sponsored by the Asia Foundation, a non-governmental organization.