Ramos allies keep lead in senatorial elections

Ramos allies keep lead in senatorial elections

MANILA (AFP): Special congressional and local elections were held in two predominantly-Moslem provinces in the southern Philippines on Saturday as allies of President Fidel Ramos maintain their lead in the slow count of senatorial votes.

Spokesmen of the (Comelec) said special polls were being held in Sulu and Maguindanao after the elections there on May 8 were declared void due to cheating and fighting between rival Moslem political factions.

The results of the two special elections as well as the vote tally from a third Moslem province, Lanao del Sur, will only be brought to the capital for inclusion in the national count next week, delaying the final tally of votes even further.

With votes from 98 percent of the country's electoral precincts counted, pro-administration candidates are still holding nine of the 12 senate seats being contested.

Only three opposition senatorial candidates, anti-graft crusader Miriam Santiago, rightist military coup-plotter Gregorio Honasan and feminist Dominique Coseteng, were still in the winning frame at the seventh, eighth and twelfth positions respectively.

Comelec spokesmen said they hope to finish the slow manual count within the month and to proclaim the winners a day or two later.

Comelec had admitted that they were doing a recheck of the vote tally after discrepancies were found in several of the certificates of canvass turned in but so far, they had not discovered any signs of massive cheating.

Ramos has hailed the results of the elections, saying that the apparent victory of many of his allies in the congressional race has given him a new mandate.

However, many of the losing candidates have filed protests over alleged cheating.

One involves a protest filed by pro-Ramos senatorial candidate Aquilino Pimentel against fellow administration bet Juan Ponce Enrile.

Pimentel, who is fourteenth in the race, is charging Enrile, who is tenth, of having cheated so that votes cast for Pimentel were counted in his favor.