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.