The Philippines said yesterday it would probe claims of vote fraud after national elections marred by violence and stolen ballots, with up to 100,000 people unable to participate in the polls.
Two people who were counting votes by hand from Monday's polls were killed yesterday, taking the death toll to 126 in election-related violence, which drew international criticism and scared many away from voting.
Millions cast ballots to elect thousands of local politicians, the entire 275-seat House of Representatives and half the 24-seat Senate, control of which could go to the opposition, exit polls suggested.
"We do not deny that there were many who were disenfranchised," said the head of the national election commission, Benjamin Abalos.
"It may not be a substantial amount but as long as there is disenfranchisement, even if it is just one or two people, we cannot close our eyes," he said.
The commission has set up a panel to look into reports of cheating, and 110 special courts have been opened nationwide to handle an expected flood of fraud claims, which are common in this Southeast Asian nation.
As many as 100,000 voters in the strife-torn south of the country were unable to cast their ballots due to the threat of violence or lack of ballot papers, some of which were stolen, the commission said.
Abalos insisted the elections had been generally fair and peaceful, rejecting reports of rampant irregularities.
"There have been no reported incidents of cheating" except for minor isolated incidents, he told reporters.
The Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) a public policy group, however, said Monday's election could see the lowest turnout in six years.
Disputing Abalos' estimate of a 70 to 80 percent turnout among the country's 45 million registered voters, CenPEG's Bobby Tuazon said several precincts in Manila reported turnouts as low as 50 percent.
"If this is the case, Monday's elections could be the lowest in years, with 77 percent turnout in 2004 [presidential election] and 85 percent in 2001 [midterm elections]," Tuazon said.
He said reports showed that "possibly hundreds of thousands of voters" were directly disenfranchised with their names missing from voter lists.
As counting began around the country yesterday the focus is now on who will dominate the Senate.
President Gloria Arroyo's allies hold seven of the 12 Senate seats not contested, meaning the fragmented opposition would need to win eight of the seats up for grabs to take control of the upper house.
An opposition-controlled Senate would make it harder for Arroyo to pursue her economic reform agenda. Over the past three years, Congress has passed a set of tax bills which shored up the government's finances.
Despite the possible loss of the Senate, analysts expect Arroyo to maintain control of the House, where any efforts to impeach Arroyo over allegations she cheated to win the May 2004 ballot would originate. She denies wrong-doing.
Official results in the local elections are expected to be declared within a week, but it could be a month before results in the Senate and House are known.
As the vote count continued yesterday, so did the violence. Two election workers, both teachers, were killed when unidentified men burned down a school used as a polling place in the town of Taysan south of Manila, police said.
"We continue to receive field reports of isolated incidents of violence, some of which are directly related to politics," national police chief Oscar Calderon said.
"The first order of the day is to go hammer and tongs against those responsible for this election violence and give justice to the 126 killed," he said.
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