Aquino Won Election, U.S. Report Affirms

Corazon Aquino won a majority of the votes cast by Philippine citizens in that nation’s disputed presidential election, a team of U.S. observers told President Reagan today.

The final report of the group headed by Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, was released to the public at the same time it was sent to the White House.

The report, although anticlimactic, detailed in writing what Lugar and other U.S. observers began saying shortly after the polls closed Feb. 7--that there had been widespread fraud.

Then-President Ferdinand E. Marcos, who ruled for 20 years, called the “snap” elections to answer charges that he was unpopular. Aquino, widow of assassinated opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr., was drafted to run as his opponent and Salvador Laurel was her vice presidential candidate.

Marcos Claimed Win

After the polls closed, Marcos said he had polled more votes and cited figures from the Commission on Elections (COMELEC). He discounted other figures provided by an independent poll-watching group, National Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL), which showed him to have lost.

In a statement, Lugar said the NAMFREL “count stands as the only reliable indicator of genuine national voter preference.”

The observers said “the electoral process was marred by government-sponsored or -supported fraud, violence and administration incompetence at every level.”

It also concluded that “the vast majority of electoral and statutory offenses were perpetrated by officials of the Philippine government, members of the ruling KBL party and their employees and supporters.”

That statement contrasts with a comment by President Reagan shortly after the balloting that there had been fraud on both sides.