Marcos Jr heading for landslide victory in presidential race
BATAC CITY, PHILIPPINES: Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr widened his lead in the Philippines presidential race as vote counting was under way, local media reported, which could see him win the highest seat of power more than three decades after his dictator father was ousted.
Marcos Jr was up against Leni Robredo who defeated him for the vice presidency in 2016 by a slim margin. This time, he had led opinion surveys by double-digits ahead of election day.
Marcos had widened his lead, with 15.3 million votes as of 8: 17pm local time and with about 47% of the election returns processed. Robredo came in second with 7.29 million votes, according to GMA News.
Ten candidates were vying to succeed President Rodrigo Duterte in elections seen by many as a make- or- break moment for the Philippines’ fragile democracy.
But only Marcos Jr and his rival Leni Robredo, the incumbent vice president, had a credible chance of winning.
From before dawn, maskclad voters formed long queues to cast their ballots in 70,000 polling stations across the archipelago.
At Mariano Marcos Memorial Elementary School in the northern city of Batac, the ancestral home of the Marcoses, voters waved hand fans to cool their faces in the tropical heat.
Bomb sniffer dogs swept the polling station before Marcos Jr arrived with his younger sister Irene and eldest son Sandro.
They were followed by the family’s flamboyant 92-year-old matriarch Imelda, who was lowered from a white van while wearing a long red top with matching trousers and slip-on flats.
Sandro, 28, who is running for elected office for the first time in a congressional district in Ilocos Norte province, admitted the family’s history was “a burden”.
Casting her ballot for Robredo at a school in the central province of Camarines Sur, Corazon Bagay said the former congresswoman deserved to win.
“She has no whiff of corruption allegations,” said the 52-year-old homemaker. “She’s not a thief. Leni is honest.” Supporters greeted Robredo as she arrived at the same school to vote. Turnout was expected to be high among the more than 65mn Filipinos eligible to vote.
SHANGHAI/BEIJING: China’s two biggest cities tightened Covid-19 curbs on their residents on Monday, raising new frustration and even questions about the legality of its uncompromising battle with the virus.
As authorities wrestle with China’s worst Covid outbreaks since the epidemic began, authorities in its most populous city of Shanghai have launched a new push to end infections outside quarantine zones by late May, people familiar with the matter said.
While there has been no official announcement, over the weekend some residents in at least four of its 16 districts received notices saying they were no longer able to leave their homes or receive deliveries as part of the effort to drive community infections down to zero.
“Go home, go home!” a woman shouted through a megaphone at residents mingling below apartment towers at one of those compounds on Sunday.
Two residents in a fifth district, Yangpu, said they were notified of similar measures and that grocers in their neighbourhoods would be shutting as part of the effort.
In Beijing, residents of its worst- hit areas were told to work from home while more roads, compounds and parks were sealed off on Monday as the city of 22 million grappled with its worst outbreak since 2020.
More bus routes were suspended as more rounds of testing were conducted in a handful of districts, including Chaoyang and Fangshan, both of which were described by municipal authorities as the “priority of priorities” in the city’s counterepidemic work.
Beijing reported on Monday 49 new locally transmitted
Workers inspect the health information on customers’ mobile phones outside a reopened supermarket in Shanghai.
cases for May 8, taking its tally of infections since April 22 to more than 760.
Beijing has been hoping to avoid the weeks of lockdowns that Shanghai has endured but the growing number of residential buildings under lockdown orders is unnerving residents.
“I just rented an apartment in this compound, and I didn’t receive any notice,” said a 28-year-old resident of Changping district in north Beijing surnamed Wang after being barred from leaving her compound on Monday.
“I’ve already been working from home but I’m worried I might run out of daily supplies.”
NY guv tests positive
New York governor Kathy Hochul tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday, saying she will isolate and work remotely this week.
“Thankfully, I’m vaccinated and boosted, and I’m asymptomatic,” Hochul, 63, tweeted. “A reminder to all New Yorkers: get vaccinated and boosted, get tested, and stay home if you don’t feel well.”
A day earlier, the Democratic governor had tweeted a photo from the Olana State Historic Site outside Hudson, New York, which she visited to thank park volunteers.
Hochul is at least the 18th US governor to test positive for Covid-19, according to an Associated Press tally.
Early voting begins ahead of Oz’s May 21 polls
CANBERRA: Early voting began on Monday in Australia’s federal election with the opposition party hoping the first ballots will reflect its lead over the government in opinion polls. Voters began casting their ballots at 550 voting stations around the country as two new opinion polls showed the centre-left Labour Party opposition had extended its lead over PM Scott Morrison’s conservative coalition. Prepoll voting is available to those unable to vote on May 21 for reasons including work or travel.
6.3-magnitude quake strikes off Taiwan’s coast
TAIPEI: A 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Taiwan on Monday, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS), swaying high-rise buildings and delaying train services. The offshore quake hit just before 2:30pm local time at a depth of 27 kilometres, according to the USGS. No serious damage or injuries were reported, and authorities said there was no danger of a tsunami.
N Ireland parties urged to form new government
BELFAST: UK Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis on Monday called on all parties in the province to form a new powersharing government in Belfast, after historic elections and despite unresolved Brexit disputes. All five main political parties were due to meet Lewis for talks at the devolved legislature in Belfast, on their first day back in the job since Sinn Fein won Thursday’s vote. The nationalists, formerly the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, ended a century of dominance by pro-UK unionists to become the biggest party in Northern Ireland.