ELECTION OF MARCOS PROMPTS PROTESTS
Angry young voters gathered in the Philippines on Tuesday to protest against Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son and namesake of the former dictator, who clinched a landslide victory this week in one of the most divisive presidential elections in the country’s recent history.
Multiple election observers said they had received thousands of reports of election-related anomalies since the vote Monday. Malfunctioning voting machines were one of the biggest concerns, with VoteReportPH, an election watchdog, saying the breakdowns had “severely impaired this electoral process.”
On Tuesday, Leni Robredo, Marcos’ closest rival in the race and the country’s current vice president, said her team was looking into reports of voter fraud. But every opinion poll before the election had predicted that Marcos would win by a huge margin, and his lead by Tuesday was so overwhelming that reports of fraud and malfunctioning machines were unlikely to sway the result.
Marcos, known by his childhood nickname “Bongbong,” had racked up nearly 31 million votes by 4:30 p.m., according to a preliminary tally. That was more than double the number of votes Robredo had, giving Marcos the biggest margin of victory in more than three decades.
During his campaign, Marcos appealed to a public disillusioned with democracy in the Philippines, a country of 110 million and the oldest democracy in Southeast Asia. Yet for many Filipinos, the Marcos family name remains a byword for excess and greed, and a painful reminder of the atrocities committed by the father.
Marcos’ 92-year-old mother, Imelda Marcos, was sentenced to up to 11 years in 2018 for creating private foundations to hide her unexplained wealth, but remains free. She posted bail, and her case is under appeal by the Supreme Court. Critics fear Marcos could use the presidency to scrap that case and other outstanding cases against the family.