UN reaffirms importance of multilingualism

A group of foreign observers in the Philippines for the May 14 national elections blamed the presence of military and police on the low voters' turnout.

Somsri Hananontasuk, director of 21-man Asian Network for Free Elections (Anfrel) group, said, “The situation is not so comfortable especially if you have the military everywhere and also weapons everywhere.”

Somsri, who had observed polls in 2004 and 2005 in Afghanistan, said she felt safer in that country than in the Philippines last Monday due to the possible violence.

She said, "Of course, we were also afraid of the underground Taliban but at least we don’t have shooting.”