05/09/2022 08:14 (act 05/09/2022 08:20)
Marcos Jr will be the new president of the Philippines ©APA/AFP
Overshadowed by violent attacks, the people of the Philippines have elected a new president. On the island of Mindanao, assailants opened fire on a school used as a polling station on Monday. According to police, three security guards were killed and a fourth was injured. Another grenade attack injured nine people on the island.
Polling stations in the Philippines close at 19:00 local time (13:00 CEST). Almost 40 years after the deposition of his father and the exile of the family, the dictator’s son, Ferdinand Marcos Junior, is the favorite to succeed the controversial president Rodrigo Duterte. Before Marcos Junior voted alongside his family at an elementary school in the northern city of Batac, the building was searched by bomb-sniffing dogs.
In all, ten candidates ran for the election, but only acting vice president Leni Robredo and Marcos Junior have a real chance. In recent polls, Marcos, 64, was 56%, well ahead of his rival. Robredo voted for a school in the central province of Camarines Sur, where supporters applauded her.
Even before sunrise, people lined up in front of primary schools and other polling stations in the archipelago to vote. “Long lines are great. Filipinos wanted to be heard, and out loud,” said George Garcia of the Election Commission. Turnout is expected to be high among the more than 65 million Filipinos eligible to vote.
More than 60,000 security forces were deployed on Monday to protect ballot papers and election officials. In addition to the head of state, thousands of local positions were also re-elected.
Just hours before voting began, two polling stations were attacked with grenades in the troubled Maguindanao province of Mindanao. While one of the attacks remained victimless, according to authorities, nine people were injured in the other. So it was the residents of distant mountain villages who went to the nearest town for hours to vote.
The daughter of the current president and vice-presidential candidate, Sara Duterte, said she hoped voters would not be “deprived” by violence. Marcos Junior recently warned against electoral fraud – his supporters must avoid “another theft of the election”.
Armed groups ranging from communist insurgents to Islamic militants exist in Mindanao, in the south of the archipelago. Deadly attacks regularly occur during elections. However, this year’s election campaign was relatively uneventful. According to police, there were just 16 “confirmed election-related incidents” from Jan. 9 through Sunday, including four gun attacks. There were 133 incidents in the 2016 presidential election.