NAMFREL launches QR Count for midterm polls

The National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) launched on Thursday its Operation QR Count (OCQ) to allow Filipino voters to independently participate in verifying the transmitted results of the midterm polls.

According to the election watchdog, any person with a smart device and an internet connection can contribute to verifying the transmitted results of the elections at various polling places by scanning the QR codes of the Election Returns (ER) posted outside the doors of polling places during the counting period.

The QR codes may be scanned using the NAMFREL 2025 app, a NAMFREL-developed mobile application, which can now be downloaded from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

As an accredited citizens' arm of the Commission on Elections, NAMFREL will be receiving transmitted election results in real time, which will also be made available to the public through its website.

The election returns posted outside the polling places will be printed prior to transmission. Results scanned from the QR codes of these election returns will be received by NAMFREL HQ and will then be matched with the transmitted results from the same polling places.

It will be possible to see on the NAMFREL website which transmitted results also received corresponding QR ER results data from the public, according to the watchdog.

NAMFREL said it expects to receive duplicate scans of the QR codes from the same ERs at polling places, which will further help strengthen the verification of the transmitted results from said precincts.

Any person can scan the ER QR codes from as many polling places as they can. ERs will stay posted outside polling places for up to three days after Election Day.

"Everybody is encouraged to download the NAMFREL 2025 app to help independently verify the transmitted election results in their own polling place, voting center, barangay, city, and municipality. Every voter should be an observer," NAMFREL National Chairperson Lito Averia said during the virtual launch.

"You can do this even if you are not a NAMFREL volunteer. We especially encourage young people, and even local candidates and their supporters, to download and use the NAMFREL 2025 app to ensure that the votes in their communities are verified via the NAMFREL OQC 2025," Averia added.

Averia said they want the public to "help independently verify the transmitted results" using the election returns posted outside because these will be printed before electronic transmission.

"These are the same votes verified by the voters themselves while they were inserting their ballot through the automated counting machines."

The NAMFREL 2025 app is available for download, for use on Election Day.

Google Play Store: https://bit.ly/NAppAndroid

Apple App Store: https://apple.co/3EZHqWe