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THREE of the country’s leading statistics experts have urged institutions conducting electoral surveys to open their methods to public scrutiny and peer review. Former National Statistics Office Administrator Tomas P. Africa, former Philippine Statistical Association president Jose Ramon G. Albert and PSA life member Corinne B. Burgos also cautioned the public against results from surveys

By MINDANEWS GENERAL SANTOS CITY.– World boxing sensation Manny Pacquiao will temporarily set aside his recent ring exploits once he arrives here on Friday as he takes on another shot for a congressional post through the lone district of Sarangani province in the upcoming May 10 synchronized national and local elections. Dominico Congson, chair of

SMARTMATIC-Total Information Management Inc. (TIM), the consortium that won the poll automation project, said Thursday it has printed 22 million or a little over half of the 50 million ballots needed in the May elections. By weekend, total number of ballots printed would reach  25 million, Smartmatic said in an update it released amid continuing

AN international delegation that visited the country last week said suspicions and the lack of trust fuel the public’s general anxiety over the 2010 automated elections. The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has yet to clarify and issue instructions on a range of outstanding issues — from addressing contingency planning, accessing automated election system source codes,

By MINDANEWS DAVAO CITY–Politics was the main fare tackled in a gathering recently held in Davao City by some 100 youth leaders from all over Mindanao, and speaker after speaker urged the participants to get involved in it. But something was conspicuously missing – the faces of politicians who would normally exploit such event especially

THE Liberal Party’s Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Cojuangco Aquino III was the most covered candidate in the country’s three biggest newspapers during the first three weeks of the official campaign. Manuel “Manny” Villar of the Nacionalista Party followed closely. A far third was administration candidate and former Defense Secretary Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro Jr. Compared with that

STRATPOLLS on Friday took to task the campaign staff of Lakas-Kampi presidential bet Gilberto Teodoro for making it appear that the polling firm was leaning in favor of a candidate. “I deny having noted Teodoro’s growing conversion across all sectors when the truth is that he remains almost stationary and is behind the frontrunners in

NEARLY four of 10 registered voters say they will vote for candidates who favor the Reproductive Health Bill, and only 6 percent will vote for those who oppose it, according to the January survey of the Social Weather Stations. The survey also found 68 percent favor giving couples access to all legal means of family

THE National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections on Friday urged the Commission on Elections to issue guidelines to its election inspectors and watchers as to what steps they should take in case automation fails in their precincts on election day.   “It is dangerous for the Comelec to assume it can achieve 100 percent automated

SEN. Manuel Roxas of the Liberal Party continues to lead other vice presidential candidates even as his margin over Sen. Loren Legarda of the Nacionalista Parta has narrowed since January, according to the Social Weather Stations’ poll in late February. In the Senate race, Ramon Bong Revilla Jr.  Pilar Juliana Cayetano and Jinggoy Estrada also

THE kin of 13 journalists slain in the Nov. 23 Ampatuan massacre filed Wednesday grave misconduct charges with the National Police Commission against 62 police officers based in Maguindanao for their suspected participation in what is now the single worst attack on journalists in modern history. The complainants also asked the Napolcom to slap 90-day

By MINDANEWS DAVAO CITY.– The presidential candidates present at a forum here were on the same page as far as eliminating the Private Armed Groups (PAG) or private armies in Mindanao are concerned, must be dismantled soonest as these would be used by traditional politicians as “cheating machineries.” Former Defense Secretary and ruling party Lakas-Kamppi-CMD

By MINDANEWS DAVAO CITY.–The lack of consultations and sincerity of the panels put the peace process between the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) at bay, according to the candidates in attendance at the presidential forum here on Tuesday. In the Panaghisgot-hisgut, a 2010 Mindanao Presidential Forum, at the Ateneo de Davao University covered

FOURTEEN senatorial candidates led by incumbent senators Ramon Revilla Jr., Jinggoy Estrada and Miriam P. Defensor-Santiago stand a statistical chance of winning if elections were held now, according to Pulse Asia. Revilla, Estrada and Santiago are in fact statistically tied for first place, the February 2010 pre-election survey showed.

THE race to Malacañang has become very tight with the top two “presidentiables” locked in a statistical tie, a Social Weather Stations survey commissioned by BusinessWorld showed. The poll, the third conducted by the survey research institution for this newspaper, found the front-runners — senators Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” C. Aquino III and Manuel “Manny” B.

LT. GEN. Delfin Bangit will be the next Armed Forces chief of staff, succeedingLt. Gen. Victor Ibrado who is retiring on Wednesday. Bangit, the current Army chief, is a known Arroyo loyalist, having been been head of the Presidential Security Group under Gloria Arroyo. He also had a stint as chief of the Intelligence Service.

LIBERAL Party standard bearer Benigno “Noynoy” C. Aquino III  has widened his lead over Nacionalista Party’s Manuel Villar in the latest survey of Pulse Asia. In a survey conducted Feb. 21 to 25, Aquino was preferred by 36 percent on the question “Who would you vote if the 2010 elections were held today?” Villar scored

By RUBEN JEFFREY ASUNCION OFW Journalism Consortium IF elected, presidential candidates Gilberto Teodoro Jr., Manuel Villar and Richard Gordon would throw cash and strike deals with labor receiving countries in relation to overseas employment of Filipinos. Former Defense Secretary Teodoro and Senator Villar, however, failed to say where they would get the money for the