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Saturday, May 08, 2004
Arroyo heading for reelection: opinion poll (12:07 p.m.)
MANILA -- President Arroyo increased her lead over her main challenger three days before elections, an opinion survey revealed on Saturday amid tightened security on the last day of campaigning.
On the last survey before Monday's election by the independent Social Weather Stations (SWS) organization gave Arroyo 37 percent of the vote compared to 30 percent for opposition candidate Fernando Poe Jr.
The poll, conducted from May 1 to 4, gave breakaway opposition candidate Panfilo Lacson 11 percent, independent reformer Raul Roco six percent and television evangelist Eddie Villanueva four percent.
However the survey, published by the Manila Standard newspaper, said 12 percent of voters were still undecided.
The last SWS survey released on April 23 gave Arroyo 35.3 percent and Poe 30.8 percent from a sample of 1,400 voters. The poll had a margin of error of 1.4 percent.
Arroyo, a 57-year-old US-educated economist has been steadily increasing her lead in the opinion polls, overtaking her main rival Poe, 65, the country's most popular movie star and a high school drop-out.
Poe, whose campaign has been badly hurt by his failure to explain his platform and divisions within his party, is to hold a massive rally in Manila's financial district of Makati as a final show of force on the last day of campaigning.
Arroyo's spokesman, Ignacio Bunye said she would spend the day making surprise appearances at campaign rallies of local candidates she is backing in the general elections, also being held on Monday.
A pall has been cast over the elections by allegations and counter-accusations that mystery groups are planning massive fraud or trying to discredit the elections in order to mount a power grab.
The 43-million-strong electorate of the Southeast Asian nation covering more than 7,000 islands will vote in presidential, parliamentary and local elections on Monday.
Senior Catholic church bishops on Friday expressed grave fears for democracy after the church was contacted by a group of colonels who alleged attempts were underway to rig the polls.
Arroyo's National Security Advisor Norberto Gonzales said Thursday that unnamed figures linked with the opposition were working with active and retired military men to make it look like the elections were tainted with fraud as a pretext to stage massive street demonstrations.
This would be in preparation for seizing power, regardless of who wins the elections, Gonzales warned. The opposition has charged that this is a form of scare tactics.
Security forces have already been placed on alert amid fears the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf or Jemaah Islamiyah groups are planning attacks. Arroyo is a key Asian ally of the United States and has sent a contingent of troops to Iraq.
Additional troops and soldiers have been posted in the city to prevent any disruption of the polls.
Poe's rally, which is expected to draw some two million people, is widely seen as crucial for him to catch up with Arroyo, who has won the endorsements earlier this week of influential religious sects like the bloc-voting Iglesia Ni Cristo (Church of Christ).
Numerous top showbiz figures are scheduled to appear at the rally. AFP |
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