Thousands of Filipinos turned out for the midterm elections on Monday in a campaign that is commonly thought to be a vote on the fiery conflict between Vice President Sara Duterte and President Ferdinand Marcos.
Before voting officially began at 7:00 am ( 2300 GMT Sunday ), long lines were already forming at polling stations throughout the capital of Manila, according to AFP journalists.
More than 18 000 positions will be decided in the contest, from House of Representatives votes to hotly contested provincial practices.
However, the Senate contest has probably significant effects on the presidential election of 2028.
In a Duterte impeachment trial that could result in her being forever barred from office, the 12 senators chosen on Monday does form the other half of the jury.
Duterte’s long-running rivalry with Marcos erupted in February when she was impeached by the House for alleged “high atrocities” including corruption and an execution plot against the president.
Barely a month later, Rodrigo Duterte, her father, a former president, was detained and taken to the International Criminal Court ( ICC ) the same day to face a charge of crimes against humanity for his deadly anti-drugs campaign.
Sara Duterte did require nine votes in the 24-member Senate to keep any chance of running for president in the future.
Seven of the individuals polling in the top 12 were endorsed by Marcos before Monday, while four were in agreement with his sin president.
On Saturday, two members of the Duterte mom’s PDP-Laban party were “adopted” as honorary members of the family.
According to the quality, the addition of Marcos and tv character Camille Villar to the group’s stone was intended to “add more supporters to defend the Vice President against impeachment.”
The senator voted in an elementary college in his family’s classic stronghold of Ilocos Norte province on Monday. Isabel, his 95-year-old family, was by his part.
Duterte once more referred to her father’s move to the ICC as a “kidnapping” at her last march on Thursday in Manila and made reference to the ghost of “massive” political fraud.
The elder Duterte is still in the voting booth in his mother’s southern enclave of Davao town, where he is vying to retake his original position as mayor. He is detained at The Hague.
He did get easily, according to at least one regional poll.
– Poll riots
At least two people were killed in a fight between backers of rival political parties in the automatic Muslim region of southern Mindanao on Monday, according to the Spanish army.
The death burden for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region crisis office in Basilan state was four, according to an official who answered the phone.
In the restive north, where military conflicts between teams of political foes are frequent, there is a history of violent votes in the Philippines.
Around 163,000 officers have been dispatched to polling stations, escort election officials, and shield checkpoints as a result of the national police’s continuous monitoring for more than a year.
In a nation where fierce fighting has been known to break out in municipal posts due to the nature of the conflicts that oppose them, thousands of additional personnel from the defense, fire departments, and various organizations have been mobilized to maintain order.
One of the at least 16 people authorities claim have been killed in attacks in the run-up to Monday’s vote is a city council eager, a polling official, and a community chief.
One of two guys in an “armed party” who was killed in a fight with police and the military was a candidate for provincial councillor on Saturday.
Further north, a group of men were detained the same day at the Cebu airport while carrying 441 million pesos ( nearly$ 8 million ) in cash, a crime under the electoral laws intended to stop the exchange of bribes for votes.
This time, a special early election period made it possible for the elderly and those with disabilities to cast ballots at 5 am. – Agency