Int’l group to observe polls in Caraga

BUTUAN CITY — A team of international observers arrived here yesterday to look into the conduct of Monday’s elections in the Caraga region.

At a press conference, Jennifer A Albano, coordinator of Compact for Peaceful Elections, a non-government organization networking with other local and international poll monitoring groups, said the foreign team will stay until May 12 to observe the polls, particularly in this city and Agusan del Norte.

Heading the Compact international mission are German lawyer Annette Zepp-Glinoga, an official of the German Federal Ministry of Interior who specializes in refugee and European law, and British national Fr. Archie Casey, a Xaverian missionary from Scotland.

Casey works as a volunteer of the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Commission of the Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines. Prior to his two-year stint in the Philippines, he was a missionary for 15 years in Bangladesh.

Casey and Glinoga said they are in Caraga as "ordinary and mere observers" and in their personal capacity, and not as representatives of their respective governments.

"We will focus more on election-related violence, fraud incidents and how Filipinos behave in exercising their right to vote, and document them. That’s all; we are not here to interfere in Philippine affairs," Casey said.

They added that the conduct of the May 10 elections is crucial to the international body in determining how democratic processes work through the polls after the 1986 EDSA Revolution.

"Elections in the Philippines are very unique and this makes us interested in studying them," he added. "We will make public our observations but definitely we will not (make judgements)," Casey said.