The United States will deploy 120 monitors around the Philippines to observe the conduct of the May 10 elections, a senior US official said Wednesday.

Twenty observers will come from Washington D.C. while the rest will be junior officers from the US Embassy in Manila who have never observed elections in the Philippines and need to learn more about the country, US Charge d'affaires Joseph Musomelli told reporters.

He said the monitors will not come out with an assessment on whether or not the polls were conducted properly though they will show international support for the Philippines' electoral exercise.

The monitoring team preferred to let the National Citizens' Movement for Free Election and other non-governmental organizations to first reach a general consensus on the conduct of the polls, he added.

Musomelli also said the monitors will not be deployed in areas of security concern.

In the upcoming May 10 elections, more than 40 million Filipinos will choose their president, vice president, half of the Senate's 24 members, all the members of the House of Representatives and more than 17,000 local positions from governors to village councilors.

Source: Xinhua