|
Monday, June 21, 2004
Arroyo beats FPJ by 1.1M in final tally
MANILA -- Six weeks after the election and after 13 days of debates, the results are finally in.
President Arroyo has won another six-year term, beating Fernando Poe Jr. by 1,123,576 votes, congressional officials said Sunday night at the close of the preliminary canvass by a joint congressional committee.
The committee will now submit a report on the election results to be debated by Congress, before Arroyo, who is visiting Cebu Monday and Tuesday, is officially declared the winner.
With all 176 certificates of canvass tallied, President Arroyo received 12,905,808 votes, compared to Poe’s 11,782, 232. Arroyo’s ally, Sen. Noli de Castro, led the race for vice president with 15,100,431 votes, to Sen. Loren Legarda’s 14,218,709.
Administration and opposition leaders in Congress agreed that if there is anything to learn from the manual canvass, it is that "a better, more modern system" should be in place before the next election.
"We will not go through that harrowing canvass again," said Senate President Franklin Drilon. As part of tradition, he and House Speaker Jose de Venecia read the last certificate of canvass at 8:17 Sunday night.
"It is a national disgrace, this antediluvian means of voting and counting. We must modernize the electoral process," reelected opposition Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said.
Sen. Francis Pangilinan, head of the committee that tallied the vote results, said he was hopeful President Arroyo could be formally declared the victor by Friday.
"I’m happy we got this far and I’m very tired. The bulk of our work is over," said Pangilinan.
Exit polls and preliminary results earlier showed Arroyo winning the election but Poe’s allies in Congress charged she used fraud to steal the vote.
Two opposition legislators have walked out of the vote tally in protest over alleged cheating before the count was completed, but this did not prevent the completion of the tally.
On Friday, police used water cannons to disperse some 1,500 Poe supporters who tried to march to the presidential palace to protest the alleged fraud.
With her proclamation imminent, Malacañang confirmed yesterday that President Arroyo intends to take oath and party in Cebu.
"The preference of President Arroyo is Cebu because the province gave her the biggest lead in the elections," Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said in a radio interview. (AFP/PNA)
(June 21, 2004 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
|
|
|
[return to top]
[home]
|
|
