RP president grabs early election lead, but challenger cries foul

RP president grabs early election lead, but challenger cries foul

Agencies Manila

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo took the lead in early election returns on Tuesday and a nationwide poll predicted she would win, but rumblings of trouble emerged as her movie star opponent said he believed he was being cheated.

Most of the surveys suggested Monday's election was a tight race, raising the specter of more uncertainty for Filipinos and foreign investors already concerned about corruption, huge debts, insurgencies, poverty and a weak economy.

The peso and stocks fell sharply, although that was partly in reaction to a global market slide on Monday.

The exit poll by Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed Arroyo taking 40 percent of the vote with matinee idol Fernando Poe Jr. at 32 percent. Three other challengers split the rest.

The survey of 4,600 voters across the Philippines had a margin of error of 2 percent. Arroyo's lead was slightly higher than in pre-election surveys by SWS and Pulse Asia, the country's other major pollster.

ABS-CBN television, the country's largest network, said its unofficial count of almost 1.6 million votes showed Arroyo with 36.5 percent, compared with 34.9 percent for Poe.

Poe, a gun-toting hero of 282 movies, had earlier expressed surprise he was trailing Arroyo in polls.

"We are ahead but the media is reporting the exact opposite," Poe, popularly known as FPJ, told a news conference. "So I am appealing to the media to be fair and report the truth. This government should not use money and intimidate the nation."

Poe urged his supporters to demonstrate in downtown Manila to "remain firm in our belief in the truth that victory is ours." About 3,000 people gathered in the evening, singing, "FPJ, the hope of the nation."

The military warned against violence or mass protests, and said it would use "necessary force" to maintain order. The president's side has charged Poe supporters with plotting to stir up violence to overturn an Arroyo victory.

Poe's backers alleged problems with Monday's polling - including men in military uniforms opening boxes to burn ballots, vote-buying, harassment of voters and switching of ballots. Asked whether this amounted to cheating, Poe campaign spokesman Mike Romero said: "Yes, there have been so many anomalies, delays in the canvassing."

Arroyo praised what she called relatively orderly balloting and her spokesman denied cheating or intimidation. But Arroyo urged Filipinos to remain "vigilant until the last vote is counted" in a tally being done by hand and expected to take weeks.

Asked about polls showing her ahead, Arroyo did not directly answer. But she appeared confident and said "the important thing now is we must leave behind the rancor that unfortunately characterized the campaign."

The official count will take a month as teachers tally votes by hand and ballot boxes make a long journey from local polling stations to regional and national centers, with some officials bribed to alter the results along the way.

The election season left at least 114 people dead since December and highlighted the deep divisions between the Philippines' impoverished majority - many of whom back the popular actor Poe - and a wealthy elite that sided with Arroyo.

If she wins, Arroyo gains her first real mandate to lead the largely Roman Catholic nation of 82 million after she rose into the job in 2001 in the second of two "people power" uprisings.

Arroyo, a 57-year-old U.S.-trained economist and daughter of a former president, put down a brief mutiny by junior officers in Manila's financial district in July.

But the ninth military-linked revolt since the first "people power" protests overthrew dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 was a reminder of the potential for rumors, plots and unrest.

It was not immediately known how many of the 43 million eligible voters cast ballots. Poe claimed many were prevented from voting.

Soldiers were on standby in the capital to deal with any trouble, and had secured power transmission lines to avoid sabotage, said military spokesman Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero.