UPDATES WITH PROJECTION
By Roy Ramos
ZAMBOANGA, the Philippines (AA) – Rodrigo Duterte appears to be on his way to becoming the first Philippines president from the country’s south.
As of 6 p.m. Monday (1000GMT), exit polls and early unofficial counts by two major media outfits and a church-backed election watchdog had the outspoken mayor ahead.
The Manila Broadcasting Corporation’s DZRH radio exit poll showed Duterte gathering 40 percent, Sen. Grace Poe on 20 percent and incumbent president President Benigno Aquino III’s choice Manuel “Mar” Roxas II on 19 percent.
ABS CBN networks and Philippine Daily unofficial counts as of 6 p.m. showed Duterte leading with around 1 million votes, and Mar Roxas and Grace Poe on 800,000 plus.
An unofficial count by watchdog the Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting showed Duterte leading by some 20 percent.
Millions of Filipino voters earlier flocked to polling stations, only to be greeted by paper jams, and faulty machines.
GMA News reported the Commission on Elections as preparing a resolution mid-morning to extend the voting period in some polling precincts.
Many of the machines would not accept the ballots fed into them, causing paper jams at several poll precincts in eight of the dozens of schools turned into voting centers in southern Zamboanga City, Brigada News Radio reported.
GMA also received reports of glitches in Isabela City, Basilan province, Romblon, Negros Oriental, Tacloban City, Roxas City, Capiz and Masbate in the central Philippines as well as in several voting centers in Metro Manila.
For every hour that the voting is delayed, another hour will be added to the voting period.
Most of voters had to endure long lines in extreme heat — temperatures across the archipelago averaged 37 to 38 degrees — as senior citizens and voters with children were given priority.
In Cebu City, in the country’s central region, a 46-year-old woman died of suspected heat stroke while waiting for her turn to vote, while another voter fainted while waiting her turn.
Authorities had advised voters to bring bottled water to polling stations.
