EARLY COUNTS showed Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino set to win the presidential election in the Philippines, as three-quarters of voters came out to vote despite technical glitches and sporadic violence.
Early tallies from the Commission on Elections, with votes counted in 38 per cent of electoral districts, showed Senator Aquino well in front, with about 40 per cent, followed by former president Joseph Estrada in second place, with 26 per cent, and Senator Manuel Villar in third place, with 14 per cent of votes.
The election has been fought on a platform of cleaning up political life in this fragile democracy after a decade of government tainted by corruption.
Mr Aquino has promised to crack down on corruption and has also said he will set up a commission to investigate outgoing President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
A major variable in the elections was always going to be the new ballot machines, and there were indeed problems with the technology. Many Filipino voters, including Senator Aquino, had to wait to vote, and the electoral organisers were forced to extend voting by an hour.
Long queues outside polling stations meant turnout was lower than expected, although it is still a respectable 75 per cent of the country’s 50 million voters.
There were about 130 election-related deaths before the last vote in 2007. In November last year, 57 people were killed in Mindanao in the country’s worst incident of election violence. Troops and gunmen exchanged fire in southern Maguindanao province yesterday.
During the course of the campaign, there were hundreds of arrests for breaches of rules banning firearms in public and police estimate that about 27 people were killed over three months.
Former first lady Imelda Marcos is running for a seat in the nation’s lower house, as is world boxing champion Manny Pacquiao in his second congressional bid.
