Opposition leaders slammed national election officials yesterday for prematurely disclosing incumbent Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's victory in the May 10 presidential vote, saying the move was illegal and contrary to their own count showing her rival won.
Two top election officials on Monday disclosed that Arroyo beat opposition front-runner and popular actor Fernando Poe by a narrow margin, based on a secret count of official election returns.
Under the constitution, only Congress counts votes for president and vice president.
"It's very irresponsible," Poe's lawyer, Harriet Demetriou, told radio station DZRH, adding that in her personal tally, the actor won.
She said Elections Commission Chairman Benjamin Abalos should face possible legal charges as head of the agency responsible for the disclosure. Other critics called for Abalos' impeachment.
Congress was to approve rules for the vote count today and try to proclaim the winner before the June 30 inauguration amid threats by opposition politicians to challenge questionable ballots, which could hamper the process.
Abalos has said his commission was responsible for counting the votes for senatorial candidates, but also kept track of the presidential votes, which appear on the same election documents. He said he could not announce the results of the presidential race publicly.
But two top elections officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the unofficial count showed a narrow win for Arroyo.
"It's clear, but Congress is the one who will proclaim that," one of the officials told reporters, referring to Arroyo's victory.
The officials said the count showed Arroyo with 39.5 percent of the vote to Poe's 36.6 percent. The margin of Arroyo's lead was more than 900,000 votes, they said.
Two areas -- Sarangani province and Cotabato city -- remain to be counted, but they do not represent enough votes to affect the outcome, the officials said.
Arroyo also was leading Poe by more than 740,000 votes in a government-sanctioned but unofficial "quick count" by the election watchdog National Movement for Free Elections. It has tallied more than 60 percent of 216,000 election precincts.
Poe's party has warned of a "people power" revolt if he's cheated of victory. Asked if he would recognize a winner proclaimed by the administration-dominated Congress, Poe said he would, "if it's an honest election."
But he and his supporters have claimed they have evidence of massive fraud and would not allow Congress to count questionable election documents, threatening to impede an already notoriously slow count.
Arroyo's spokesman, Ignacio Bunye, said he hoped Congress could proclaim the winner quickly, adding the administration was "concerned about the effect of a protracted canvass upon our political and economic stability."
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