A Philippine election watchdog says its unofficial count showed President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had won a fresh term by narrowly beating film star Fernando Poe Jr with 39 percent of the votes to his 37
percent.
The official tally from a May 10 general election will not confirm the winner of the presidential race until at least mid-June, but counts by the National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) have proved accurate in the past.
The NAMFREL "quick count" of 79.21 percent of the ballots which took four weeks was largely redundant after a senior election official leaked results on May 24 showing Arroyo had defeated Poe by about three percentage points.
"We neither declare a winner or a loser. Our job and our mandate is quite simply to provide advance results and that I think we have done," said Namfrel Secretary General Guillermo Luz told reporters.
Namfrel said it had to leave around seven million votes uncounted because of technical problems, discrepancies with official numbers, and some illegible returns.
The watchdog said it would deliver its final report on the election on June 30, the day the new government must be sworn in.