The son of former dictator Marcos is heading for a landslide presidential victory

According to the results covering nearly half of the nearly 70,000 polling stations, compiled by local media from figures provided by the Election Commission, Marcus Jr., nicknamed “Pong Pong”, received 15.3 million votes against only 7.2 million for her main rival, the outgoing deputy his mandate. President Lenny Robredo. If these results are confirmed, Marcos Jr will become the first president in the history of Philippine democracy to be elected by an absolute majority. It is sufficient for him, during this poll in one round, to be among the ten candidates who obtained the largest number of votes.

Opinion polls predicted a landslide victory for Marcos Jr. after an election campaign marked by torrents of misinformation. For several years, accounts loyal to Marcos Jr. invaded social networks, ushering in twenty years of his father’s regime to young Filipinos as a golden age of peace and prosperity for the Philippines. He ignored the tens of thousands of dissidents who had been arrested, tortured or killed, or even the billions of dollars the Marcos clan had collected from the country’s coffers for their personal enrichment.

Marcos Jr.’s election campaign was somewhat lackluster, as he struggled to rally his supporters and draw smaller crowds than rival Lenny Robredo. But it seems that a series of behind-the-scenes dealings with other political clans was enough to bring him victory. In particular, his alliance with Sarah Duterte, daughter of outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte, is on his way to winning the vice presidential election, which took place separately on Monday.