Marcos and Duterte both voted early Monday in their hometown. Duterte told journalists that she had recently spoken to her father, who is detained in The Hague and faced a trial before the International Criminal Court for her “war against drugs”.
She said that she had told her that more than two of her 10 candidates in the Senate likely to win. Among the 10 is the former police chief who supervised the drug war, during which thousands of people were killed.
“This election is more than an informal referendum on the Marcos administration,” said Aries Arugay, professor of political science at the University of the Philippines.
“The race for the Senate is the main proxy battle … Marcos must keep a majority, or a supermajority, to advance its legislative and economic program.”
Local media have indicated that the vote, which takes place from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., generally obtained as planned, apart from certain delays caused by problems in the voting counting machines.
