Sweltering Philippines votes with Marcos-Duterte feud centre stage

MANILA: Millions of Filipinos braved long lines and soaring temperatures on Monday to vote in a mid-term election largely defined by the explosive feud between President Ferdinand Marcos and impeached Vice President Sara Duterte.

With 75 percent of precincts reporting, Senate candidates aligned with Duterte were on track to claim five of 12 seats up for grabs, an initial tally from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) released by local media showed.

The tally, if it holds, would give the vice president one more seat than predicted in nationwide polls -- a potentially crucial vote in a looming Senate impeachment trial tentatively scheduled for July.

Five Senate hopefuls endorsed by Marcos and two independents appeared headed for election as the clock approached midnight. Monday´s election will also decide more than 18,000 positions nationally, from seats in the House of Representatives to hotly contested municipal offices.

With temperatures reaching 34 degrees Celsius (93 Fahrenheit) in some places during the day, Comelec chief George Garcia said some voting machines had experienced “overheating”. “It´s slowing the voting process,” he told reporters at a prison in southern Manila where inmates were casting ballots.

“Due to the extreme heat, the ink (on the ballots) does not dry immediately, and the ballot ends up stuck on the scanners,” Garcia said, adding officials in some areas were resorting to aiming electric fans at the machines.

The heat had even turned the blue ink used to dye voters´ fingers orange in the bottle, he said. Roland Agasa, one of the country´s 68 million registered voters, said the feud between the Duterte and Marcos dynasties had taken a mental toll ahead of the election.