Duterte pledge for clean polls lauded

President Duterte. MALACAÑANG PHOTO

Election watchdog Democracy Watch has lauded President Duterte’s assurance of clean and orderly elections in 2019.

“Transparency is a key principle in ensuring credible elections as it helps establish trust and confidence in the process by guaranteeing that the results reflect the true will of the people,” said Democracy Watch Secretary General Claudette Guevara in a statement.

Strides

“Citing the great strides introduced by the switch to the automated election system in the past three elections, the country can ill afford to go back to how things were,” she added, referring to the traditional modes of cheating during the era of manual elections.

According to her, the speedier conduct of the May 2016 elections resulted in less instability and greater confidence in the process.

Most credible

The 2016 elections were widely believed to be the most credible in recent memory, a view attested by nationwide opinion polls and accounts of foreign observers.

In a Pulse Asia survey conducted after the polls, more than 90 percent of respondents believed that the conduct of the exercise was fast, orderly and peaceful.