Elections 87% of voters opt for Marcos Jr.

87% of Filipinos in the Macau SAR have voted for the namesake son of the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, securing a total of 8,699 votes.

In the Philippines, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. received more than 31 million votes in the unofficial results, with more than 97% of the votes having been tabulated as of yesterday afternoon.

His nearest challenger, Vice President Leni Robredo, a champion of human rights, accrued 14.8 million votes in Monday’s election. In Macau, Robredo received 770 votes.

Meanwhile, Marcos Jr.’s running mate, Sara Duterte, daughter of the outgoing leader and mayor of southern Davao city, had a formidable lead in the separate vice-presidential race, garnering 31.5 million votes.

In the SAR, Duterte secured 8,748 votes out of the 9,839 votes counted.

The certified list of voters for the Macau jurisdiction shows over 14,630 Macau-based workers are registered: a surge of nearly 200% compared to the number of voters in the last presidential election in 2016.

Further, the election winner will take office on June 30 for a single, six-year term as leader of the Southeast Asian nation, which has been hit hard by two years of Covid-19 outbreaks and lockdowns, and long-troubled by crushing poverty, gaping inequalities, Muslim and communist insurgencies and deep political divisions. LV