Philippines — Millions of Filipinos voted Monday to elect a new president. Pre-election polls selected Rodrigo Duterte as the leader said The Associated Press. The 71-year-old mayor of Davao has promised to kill felons and put an end to corruption in the next six months if he results in the winner.
Filipinos are expecting a major change from the power’s cabinet. Poverty, crime, and corruption are among the main subjects that matter to the country with 98,39 million inhabitants. The new president will be elected for a six-year period.
Rodrigo Duterte represents the favorite option for many voters, according to opinion polls quoted by The Associated Press. The Philippines ex-prosecutor has reportedly conducted a campaign with jokes about Viagra and rape.
At the same time, he has faced topics that cause discontent to voters. By 11 p.m. unofficial counts of votes selected him as the president. Ferdinand Marcos, the son of a late dictator, was leading the competition to be the vice president.
“All of you who are into drugs, you sons of bitches, I will really kill you. I have no patience, I have no middle ground, either you kill me or I will kill you idiots.” Said Duterte to a crowd on Saturday, while he was closing his campaign in Manila, the capital city of Philippines.
Declarations such as the quoted have made people create the nickname “Duterte Harry”, to refer to the politician. It is linked to a fictional character that appears in a Clint Eastwood movie called Dirty Harry, said The Associated Press.
Duterte has been compared to the U.S. Grand Old Party front-runner candidate Donald Trump. The Filipino said he would shut down the Congress and establish a revolutionary government is legislators block his government.
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Results would be published in more than 24 hours
The election process began at 6 a.m., in more than 92,509 precincts. By 5 p.m. the voting had ended, except in certain places that opened later due to logistic or technical details. Results are expected to be announced after 24 hours or later.
Duterte said Monday he would like to extend his hands to opponents and say “let us be friends and begin the process of healing”, as reported by The Associated Press. First unofficial results determined that Duterte had 12.2 million votes.
His closest competitor, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas has apparently obtained 7 million votes. On the other hand, vice president candidate Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had 11.1 million votes, while Rep. Leni Robredo obtained 10.4 million.
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Source: The Associated Press