Philippine military says 2010 national elections is "most peaceful" in recent years

Philippine military and police officials said Monday this year's national elections were the " most peaceful" compared to electoral exercises in 2004 and 2007.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) reported there are 82 election-related "incidents" to date, lower than the 166 incidents posted in 2004 and 181 incidents in 2007.

"We have observed that this should be the most peaceful elections so far in our history," Ricardo Nepomuceno, spokesman Armed Forces of the Philippines's Task Force HOPE, said in a news briefing.

PNP Chief Supt. Leonardo Espina attributed the generally peaceful conduct of the elections to preparations made by authorities, including the firearms control program, the implementation of checkpoint operations, and the tight surveillance on members of private armed groups.

He said such initiatives allowed the country to "experience effectively a very low election-related violent incident this year."

"On casualties, we have a recorded total of 68 casualties, 27 of these casualties were killed. Compared to the same period of 200 days in 2004, we registered then 310 casualties. If we're going to compare 310 in 2004 to the 68 this year, this year is much lower by 355.88 percent. If you compare this year to 2007, which recorded 232 casualties, this year is lower by 241.12 percent," Espina said.

Source:Xinhua