Police officers on Monday near a polling station in Manila. Violence is common during elections in the Philippines, and the government has deployed more than 250,000 police and military to prevent it. Credit … Jess Aznar for The New York Times
MANILA – Electoral violence erupted in the Philippines over the weekend and on Monday, after a shooting between two groups linked to rivals for mayor killed four people and wounded nine others in a grenade attack.
The shooting took place on Sunday in the northern province of Ilokos Sur. Separately, local police in the southern city of Magindanao said five grenades had been fired at a municipal hall, sparking an exchange of gunfire with police. In Lanao del Sur, social media videos show people storming a polling station to destroy ballots and machines. An election spokesman said the government was investigating the episode.
Violence was common during elections in the Philippines, where the government deployed 270,000 police and military personnel on Monday to thwart such attacks.
Primary schools turned into polling stations had increased security and there were reports of damaged voting machines and some voters having difficulty finding their names on the voter lists. At a news conference, Marlon Casquejo, an election official, said the government had counted 143 defective machines across the country. He said these were mostly “isolated incidents” and blamed the old equipment for the problem.
Later in the day, George Garcia, the election commissioner, said more than 1,800 voting machines had broken down and that there were 1,100 spare machines across the country.
Analysts and election observers have described the race between Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Leni Robredo, vice president, as an existential battle for the country’s soul, with consequences that cannot be exaggerated.
Chester Kabalza, founder of the Manila-based International Development and Security Cooperation Research Institute, said the vote was not only for the next president, but also “a choice between good governance in transparent government or continuity of leadership tainted by lies and revised history.” ”
Carl Merencillo, a voter in Manila who works for a construction company, brought his wife and two young daughters to Ms. Robredo’s last rally in Manila’s financial district on Saturday. By mid-Monday morning, he had cast his “hope” vote, he said.
“It simply came to our notice then. This was one of the ways to really ensure that the future would be brighter for children and their generation, “said Mr Merencilo.
It took between 45 minutes and an hour for voters to vote in a section outside of Manila as the line wound about a mile under the blazing tropical sun. Officials tried to impose social distancing rules to prevent the spread of Covid-19, but voters were crammed cheek to jaw in many polling stations.
In addition to senior officials, thousands of local officials, mayors and senators are also running in the Philippines. There are more than 65 million registered voters in the country – a record – and election officials say polling stations will be open until 7 p.m.
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