The Philippines’ first automated national election this week was largely fair, although there were irregularities in the remote southern regions, international election observers said yesterday.
Unofficial tallies from the election commission show Senator Benigno Aquino with a lead of 15 percentage points in the presidential race. Nearly 18,000 local and national positions were on offer in Monday’s election.
The Asian Network for Free Election (ANFREL) said voting in remote Muslim communities in the southern Philippines was marred by incidents of violence and fraud, including vote-buying, multiple voting, intimidation and harassment.
“There are glitches, there are some problems which should be rectified, but the election is reasonably acceptable,” Nepalese monitor Gopal Siwakoti told a press conference.
“The May 10 elections in the Philippines demonstrated notable progress in ensuring freedom of elections with a reasonably acceptable procedure, yet significant room for attaining international commitments and standards,” Siwakoti said.
Two other presidential candidates, who between them have less than 100,000 of the more than 30 million votes counted, have refused to concede to Aquino, saying they doubted the accuracy of the automated results.
“We are getting the results fast, but fast does not mean accurate,” Nicanor Perlas said. “It is premature to say that the elections were fair and honest.”
John Carlos de los Reyes rescinded an earlier concession to Aquino after getting reports of possible electoral fraud.
Tensions also mounted when Aquino’s team vowed to use the “enormous powers” of office to probe outgoing President Gloria Arroyo yesterday.
Arroyo has promised a smooth transition, but she angered Aquino this week by appointing a new Supreme Court chief justice.
Aquino’s Liberal Party said he had many options to carry out various probes against Arroyo once he assumes the presidency.
Arroyo allies have insisted she has nothing to fear from such probes.
Meanwhile, former first lady Imelda Marcos, newly elected to Congress, vowed yesterday never to compromise with the government in the battle for her family’s alleged ill-gotten wealth.
The widow of deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos said she would be willing to discuss the wealth, but would not bargain on dividing the assets.
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
Both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a political foundation based on the “1992 consensus” and opposition to Taiwanese independence, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today said during her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Both sides of the Strait should plan and build institutionalized and sustainable mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation based on that foundation to make peaceful development across the Strait irreversible, she said. Peace is a shared moral value across the Strait, and both sides should move beyond political confrontation to seek institutionalized solutions to prevent war, she said. Mutually beneficial cross-strait relations are what the
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
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