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| Southeast Asia |
| Aquino win to be confirmed |
| 2010-06-03 |
| [Straits Times] SENATOR Benigno Aquino III could be officially declared the next Philippine president on Monday, four weeks after his landslide win in the May 10 polls, with lawmakers set to soon complete their canvass of votes. Mr Aquino, only son of the country's revered democracy icon, Cory Aquino, has an insurmountable lead of more than 5 million votes over his nearest rival, former President Joseph Estrada, based on unofficial tallies from the election commission. The deadline for Congress to declare the winners in the presidential and vice-presidential elections is June 30. 'It's safe to say that we'll be able to proclaim by Monday,' Juan Miguel Zubiri, Senate majority floor leader and a close ally of outgoing President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, told reporters. By Tuesday, lawmakers had confirmed 203 vote tallies out of a total of 278 from provinces, cities, embassies and consulates. The canvass showed Aquino had 9.6 million votes, or 42.5 per cent of more than 22.5 million votes counted, and Estrada had 5.9 million or 26.3 per cent. The election commission has estimated around 38 million people voted on May 10. |
| Posted by:Fred |