Arroyo takes strong lead in vote count

Arroyo takes strong lead in vote count

Agence France-Presse, Manila

Philippine President Gloria Arroyo took a strong lead on Sunday over chief rival Fernando Poe in a government-sanctioned election "quick-count" as a watchdog body said it saw no signs of massive cheating alleged by the opposition.

The civilian poll watchdog National Citizens Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), which is authorized to conduct an unofficial tally of the votes for the May 10 elections, said their latest count found Arroyo with 3,503,680 votes to Poe's 2,560,855 votes.

The Namfrel count as of Sunday noon covers about 23 percent of all votes cast.

At a government convention center, employees of the official Commission on Elections (Comelec) began opening up ballot boxes from all over the country in preparation for the formal nationwide canvass of votes.

However the tally still had not begun and the official results are not expected for weeks due to the laborious process of hand- counting an estimated 35 million ballots.

Namfrel chairman Jose Concepcion, meanwhile, said he saw no signs of the massive cheating in favor of Arroyo, as alleged by the opposition.

"We don't see signs of massive cheating, no deliberate, massive cheating," Concepcion told AFP.

He conceded that there had been numerous problems during the voting with many people unable to cast their ballots because their names were not on the official lists.

But he said this was largely because the Comelec did a "bad job" of preparing for the polls.

Exit polls and media "quick-counts" of the May 10 elections have largely shown that Arroyo will defeat Poe to win a new six- year term.

Followers of Poe and other opposition groups have charged that cheating has ensured an Arroyo victory, citing cases of an entire town that voted for Arroyo or places with inflated voter turnouts.

Concepcion said his group was looking into these allegations but he also warned against unverified charges of fraud.

"My concern is that this campaign has been very heated. Candidates were hitting each other over their personalities. It was not a 'platform" campaign'," he said.

At least 147 people died in election-related violence since the start of the campaign period in December.

Concepcion slammed opposition members who have accused Namfrel of being part of the alleged cheating scheme, challenging them to prove their accusations.

He also appealed for calm until the official results are clear, saying even Namfrel's figures are only partial results intended to discourage cheating.

"The results of the election will eventually be shown in the end, when all things are said and done," he said.