Five people were shot dead in the Philippines yesterday as political tensions flared a day ahead of national elections, officials said.
Police shot dead three men and wounded three others in a gunbattle in the central island of Panay, national police spokesman Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina said.
The gunbattle broke out after the gunmen, riding on two pick-up trucks, ran through a police security checkpoint set up for the elections, Espina said.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The suspects are believed to be hired gunmen working for a local mayoral candidate, police said.
Suspected communist guerrillas on Panay had earlier seized five voting machines and set them on fire, election commission spokesman James Jimenez said.
Another two people were killed when security forces for opposing candidates shot it out on the southern island of Mindanao, local military officials said.
Two bodyguards of Malalag Mayor Ruel Paras were killed during the gunbattle with the bodyguards of his rival, ex-mayor Jovil Mamaril, radio reports said.
Campaigning ended on Saturday for nearly 18,000 local and national positions, with Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino the favorite to become president after two main opinion polls showed he had a lead of about 20 points over his nearest rivals.
Analysts said Aquino might not win by as much today as the polls have suggested, and could potentially be overtaken as he lacks the national party organization of his rivals, who are better able to get their supporters out to vote.
Former president Joseph Estrada, who was removed from power by an army-backed popular uprising in 2001 and later convicted of plunder before being pardoned, has gained late momentum to catch up with former frontrunner Senator Manny Villar.
A clear and accepted winner would be the most favorable outcome for investors, unless it was Estrada, while a disputed or inconclusive outcome would be expected to weaken markets.
Fighting corruption and reducing poverty had been the key themes of the campaigns, but candidates have not been specific on details, including how to tackle the large budget deficit.
Term limits prevent unpopular Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo from running again, but she is running for a seat in the lower house of Congress, as are a number of family members.
Analysts and opponents have said she wants to become speaker of the lower house so that she can block any investigation into her administration and even engineer a shift to a parliamentary system where she could be prime minister.
The discovery of a problem with vote counting machines sparked a late recall of more than 76,000 memory cards and heightened concerns about whether the country’s first automated vote would succeed or be susceptible to breakdowns and fraud.
The election commission Comelec has said it expects 95 percent of machines to have been tested in time for today’s vote.
The remaining 5 percent, representing about 3.3 million votes, were in remote and violence-prone areas.
General Delfin Bangit, the army’s commanding general, said the forces shared the public’s concerns about the technical problems with the vote-counting machines, but he remained hopeful they would be overcome.
“As guardians of our democratic institutions, we, your soldiers, are prepared and intent to safeguard your votes and your most fundamental right to choose our leaders,” he said.
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