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MANILA (AP) - Foreign observers who monitored voting in the volatile southern Philippines said Wednesday they worried constantly about possible violence and felt safer in Afghanistan.

They also reported incidents of blatant vote-buying, violence, candidates' poll watchers dictating names to voters as they filled out their ballots and lack of voter respect for election institutions in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the country's Islamic heartland.

"The situation is not so comfortable especially if you have the military everywhere and also weapons everywhere," said Somsri Hananuntasuk, director of the Asian Network for Free Elections, who worried about the armed militias used by many candidates.