Two-sided election: Marcos wins nationwide, but the Duterte stronghold resists
Almost 70 million voters cast their ballot in midterm elections for Congress and local government. The outgoing majority in Congress should consolidate its hold. Local elections are a mixed bag with differences and divisions, with local coalition building the name of the game.
Milan (AsiaNews) – Some 68.43 million Filipinos cast their ballot in yesterday's elections to pick all the members of the House of Representatives, half of the Senate and 18,000 local officials, including provincial governors and mayors.
The unofficial results are a mixed bag with novelties, certainties and ambiguities at different levels. Several issues dominated the campaign, from development and poverty to territorial disputes with China and the renewed alliance with the United States, as well as access to justice and health care.
The race in the 316 House seats is not expected to change the overall weight of the ruling coalition that back President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his Federal Party of the Philippines (Partido Federal ng Pilipinas, PFP).
Only the final count will indicate how many outsiders made it, but the ruling majority is expected to consolidate its hold in the 24-member Senate. The opposition faltered, at least in the last stages of the campaign.
Local elections, by contrast, saw a patchwork of results, with the victory of many independent candidates unaffiliated with the two main political clans, the Marcoses led by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, whose is halfway his term of office, and the Dutertes, led by incumbent Vice President Sara Duterte.
The latter was impeached by the House of Representatives and is on trial in the Senate, which is expected to rule soon, while her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, faces an historic judgement after he was moved to the International Criminal Court in The Hague (Netherlands), charged with crimes against humanity.
The final election results are likely to show greater political fragmentation at the local level, as various alliances jockey for power.
The House is expected to back Marcos, while things in the Senate are not so clear. The president is expected to secure at least half of the 12 senate seats, but yesterday’s vote saw pro-Duterte candidates like Christopher "Bong" Go and Ronald Dela Rosa, former chief of the Philippine National Police under Duterte, among the most voted.
The progressive Akbayan Citizens' Action Party made a breakthrough in the House with 6.71 per cent of the vote after 97.23 per cent of the ballots were counted. The Duterte Youth Party also made a remarkable entry with 5.61 per cent. Only five parties passed the 2 per cent threshold.
For the Dutertes, this is a major show, but it is not likely to change national politics. It does, however, confirm their stranglehold in Davao, the country’s second-largest city, where Duterte Sr was re-elected mayor, a post he held for 22 years before his stint as president, taking the top job with 660,000 votes, far ahead of the runner-up who won 80,000 votes.
His son, Sebastian, was elected deputy major with slightly fewer votes, while other members of the Duterte clan were elected to other local offices. This appears to be a major vote of confidence for Rodrigo Duterte.
Meanwhile, his supporters reject the charges against him and view his extradition to The Hague unfair. Despite his election, the former president was unable to vote since he failed to register as a voter abroad, this according to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
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