Word: namfrel
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Dates: during 1984-1984
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Thanks to such brave efforts around the nation, millions of Filipinos were encouraged last week to speak their minds and vote their consciences for the first time in 15 years. Protected by 150,000 volunteer poll watchers belonging to the National Citizens Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) and prompted by long-pent-up frustration with the autocratic government of President Ferdinand Marcos, voters delivered a stunning message: they were ready for change and prepared to fight for it. Before the election, the President had publicly prophesied a routine landslide victory for his Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (K.B.L.), or New Society Movement...
...opposition knew that it would need every ounce of persistence to maintain that gain as the count dragged on. On the day after the election, NAMFREL estimated that the government was losing in 97 constituencies. As the days passed, that figure steadily dwindled. Though the decline was explained in part by late-arriving returns from rural areas where the K.B.L. is strongest, it inevitably aroused suspicions that the government was rectifying its losses by shamelessly altering the returns. Whatever the final tally, Filipinos may now at last have some kind of check on Marcos' one-man, one-party rule...