Filipino clans, celebrities dominate midterm polls

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — From Imelda Marcos to Manny Pacquiao, familiar names of political clans and celebrities dominated the ballots in the Philippines' congressional and local elections Monday, making them a contest of popularity first and reform second.

Despite scattered killings and fears of fraud, the polls were expected to be relatively peaceful after authorities took steps to prevent chaos in one of Asia's most raucous democracies. Polling started at 7 a.m. and ends at 7 p.m. with first results expected in 48 hours.

More than 52 million Filipinos have registered to elect 18,000 officials, including half of the 24-member Senate, nearly 300 members of the House of Representatives and leaders of a Muslim autonomous region in the south, where Islamic insurgents, al-Qaida-linked gunmen and private armies have long been a concern.

Elections in the Philippines are about name recall. Parties exist in name only and to bankroll campaigns. Political platforms are an addition, less important than a catchy slogan or good TV ad.

Still, the outcome will determine the level of support for President Benigno Aquino III's reform agenda in his remaining three years in office. Aquino has been praised at home and abroad for cracking down on widespread corruption, backing key legislation and concluding an initial peace agreement with Muslim rebels.

But he cannot run for re-election and a choice of his successor will depend on the new political landscape.

Among 33 senatorial candidates are two of Aquino's relatives, a neophyte daughter of the vice president, a son of the sitting chamber president, a son of a late president, an ousted president's son, a spouse and children of former senators and there's a possibility that two siblings will be sitting in the same house. Currently, 15 senators have relatives serving in elective positions.

The race for the House is even more of a family affair. Toppled dictator Ferdinand Marcos' widow, the flamboyant 83-year-old Imelda, is expected to keep her seat as a representative for Ilocos Norte province, the husband's birthplace where the locals kept electing the Marcoses despite allegations of corruption and abuse during their long rule. Marcos' daughter, Imee is seeking re-election as governor and the son, Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., is already a senator.

Boxing star Manny Pacquiao is also seeking re-election in the House and building a dynasty of his own: his brother Rogelio is running to represent his southern district and wife Jinkee as vice-governor for Sarangani province.

On the local level, Joseph Estrada, who was ousted in a 2001 "people power" revolt on corruption allegations, is running for mayor of Manila, hoping to capitalize on his movie star popularity, particularly among the poor masses.

Philippine elections have long been dominated by politicians belonging to the same bloodlines. At least 250 political families have monopolized power across the country, although such dynasties are prohibited under the 1987 constitution. Congress — long controlled by members of powerful clans targeted by the constitutional ban — has failed to pass the law needed to define and enforce the provision.

Critics worry that a single family's stranglehold on different levels of government could stymie checks against abuses and corruption. A widely cited example is the 2009 massacre of 58 people, including 32 media workers, in an ambush blamed on rivalry between powerful clans in southern Maguindanao province.

In the latest violence, gunmen killed five people and wounded two mayoral candidates in separate attacks over the weekend. Last month, gunmen fired on a truck carrying a town mayor and his supporters in southern Lanao del Norte province, killing 13 people including his daughter.

The 125,000-strong military has helped the government in urging candidates to shun violence. An army general took off with his troops aboard two helicopters and dropped leaflets calling for peaceful elections in Masbate, a central province notorious for political killings.

Ana Maria Tabunda from the independent pollster Pulse Asia said that dynasties restrict democracy, but added that past surveys by her organization have shown that most Filipinos are less concerned about the issue than with the benefits and patronage they can receive from particular candidates. Voters also often pick candidates with the most familiar surnames instead of those with the best records, she said.

"It's name recall, like a brand. They go by that," she said.

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Associated Press writer Jim Gomez contributed to this report.

Follow Hrvoje Hranjski on Twitter at https://twitter.com/hmanila

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Tensions up in Venezuela after polls close

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Voters chose Sunday between the hand-picked successor who campaigned to carry on Hugo Chavez's self-styled socialist revolution and an emboldened second-time challenger who warned that the late president's regime has Venezuela on the road to ruin. Tensions rose soon after polls closed as both sides hinted at victory and suggested the other was plotting fraud.

Jorge Rodriguez, the head of the campaign for acting President Nicolas Maduro, said he couldn't reveal the results before electoral authorities did but strongly suggested Maduro had won by smiling and summoning supporters to the presidential palace, where Chavez's supporters gathered to celebrate the late president's past victories. And he warned that Maduro's camp would not allow the will of the people to be subverted.

Opposition challenger Henrique Capriles and his campaign aides immediately lashed out at Rodriguez's comments.

Ramon Guillermo Aveledo, a Capriles campaign coordinator, suggested the government was trying to steal the election.

"They know perfectly well what happened and so do we," he said at a hastily called news conference. "They are misleading their people and are trying to mislead the people of this country."

Capriles also suggested fraud was in the works in a Twitter message: "We alert the country and the world of the intent to change the will of the people!"

In an earlier tweet, Capriles urged his supporters not to be "desperate and defeated."

Bill Richardson, the former New Mexico governor and longtime U.S. ambassador-at-large who came to witness the election, told The Associated Press that both candidates had assured him they would respect the outcome of the vote.

"I'm not here as an election observer, but I met with both candidates — Maduro, yesterday, and Capriles today. And I'm hopeful because both told me they would respect the rule of law and the will of the people," Richardson said.

Maduro, the 50-year-old longtime foreign minister to Chavez, pinned his hopes on the immense loyalty for his boss among millions of poor beneficiaries of government largesse and the powerful state apparatus that Chavez skillfully consolidated.

Maduro's campaign was mostly a near-religious homage to the man he called "the redeemer of the Americas," who succumbed to cancer March 5. He blamed Venezuela's myriad woes on vague plots by alleged saboteurs that the government never identified.

Capriles' main campaign weapon was to simply emphasize "the incompetence of the state," as he put it to reporters Saturday night.

Maduro's big lead in opinion polls was cut in half over the past two weeks in a country struggling with the legacy of Chavez's management of the world's largest oil reserves.

Millions of Venezuelans were lifted out of poverty under Chavez, but many also believe his government not only squandered, but plundered, much of the $1 trillion in oil revenues during his tenure.

Venezuelans are afflicted by chronic power outages, crumbling infrastructure, unfinished public works projects, double-digit inflation, food and medicine shortages, and rampant crime. Venezuela has one of the world's highest homicide and kidnapping rates.

"We can't continue to believe in messiahs," said Jose Romero, a 48-year-old industrial engineer who voted for Capriles in the central city of Valencia. "This country has learned a lot and today we know that one person can't fix everything."

Voting lines seemed considerably lighter than in the October election that Chavez won, when more than 80 percent of the electorate turned out, although government officials said it was due to the improved efficiency of the system.

After polls closed there were moments of tension at some voting centers.

At Andres Bello high school in central Caracas a band of about 100 Chavistas on motorcycles, many with faces covered with bandanas, harassed opposition activists who wanted to witness the vote count to ensure there was no fraud.

Some of the Chavistas tried to steal phones and cameras from people recording video of the event. The digital audio recorder of an Associated Press reporter was grabbed out of her hand.

Motorcycle-riding Chavistas have on several occasions during the campaign beaten Capriles supporters in the capital, though none apparently seriously enough to require hospitalization.

In the Chavista stronghold of Petare outside Caracas, the Maduro vote was strong. Maria Velasquez, 48, who works in a government soup kitchen that feeds 200 people, said she was voting for Chavez's man "because that is what my comandante ordered."

Reynaldo Ramos, a 60-year-old construction worker, said he "voted for Chavez" before correcting himself and saying he chose Maduro. But he could not seem to get his beloved leader out of his mind.

"We must always vote for Chavez because he always does what's best for the people and we're going to continue on this path," Ramos said. He said the government had helped him get work on the subway system and helps pay his grandchildren's school costs.

The governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela deployed a well-worn get-out-the-vote machine spearheaded by loyal state employees. It also enjoyed the backing of state media as part of its near-monopoly on institutional power.

Capriles' camp said Chavista loyalists in the judiciary put them at glaring disadvantage by slapping the campaign and broadcast media with fines and prosecutions that they called unwarranted.

Capriles is a 40-year-old state governor who lost to Chavez in October's presidential election by a nearly 11-point margin, the best showing ever by a challenger to the longtime president.

At his campaign rallies, Capriles would read out a list of unfinished road, bridge and rail projects. Then he asked people what goods were scarce on store shelves.

Capriles showed Maduro none of the respect he earlier accorded Chavez. Maduro hit back hard, at one point calling Capriles' backers "heirs of Hitler." It was an odd accusation considering that Capriles is the grandson of Holocaust survivors from Poland.

The opposition contended Chavez looted the treasury last year to buy his re-election with government handouts. It also complained about the steady flow of cut-rate oil to Cuba, which Capriles said would end if he won.

Venezuela's $30 billion fiscal deficit is equal to about 10 percent of the country's gross domestic product.

Maduro, a former union activist and bus driver with close ties to Cuba's leaders, constantly alleged that Capriles was conspiring with U.S. putschists to destabilize Venezuela and even suggested Washington had infected Chavez with the cancer that killed him.

He focused his campaign message on his mentor: "I am Chavez. We are all Chavez." And he promised to expand anti-poverty programs.

The victor of Sunday's balloting will face no end of hard choices.

Many factories operate at half capacity because strict currency controls make it hard for them to pay for imported parts and materials. Business leaders say some companies verge on bankruptcy because they cannot extend lines of credit with foreign suppliers.

Chavez imposed currency controls a decade ago trying to stem capital flight as his government expropriated large land parcels and dozens of businesses. Now, dollars sell on the black market at three times the official exchange rate and Maduro has had to devalue Venezuela's currency, the bolivar, twice this year.

Meanwhile, consumers grumble that stores are short of milk, butter, corn flour and other staples. The government blames hoarding, while the opposition points at the price controls imposed by Chavez in an attempt to bring down double-digit inflation.

A 37-year-old government employee leaving a polling station in central Caracas with her 4-month-old son and her sister said she was fed up with what she described as political intimidation at her office and was voting for Capriles.

"We have to keep quiet at work or else they fire you or make your life impossible," said the woman, who asked that she only be identified by her first name, Laurena.

She said she had been told to attend pro-government marches. "You go for a little so they see your face and then you leave. It's not fair that you have to stop doing your job to go to a march. "

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Associated Press writers Fabiola Sanchez, Jorge Rueda, E. Eduardo Castillo and Christopher Toothaker in Caracas and Vivian Sequera in Valencia contributed to this report.

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Alexandra Olson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Alexolson99

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E. African nation Djibouti holds parliament polls

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Voters in the tiny East African nation of Djibouti are casting ballots in the nation's parliamentary elections.

Friday's vote is notable because opposition political parties can win seats for the first time.

Djibouti — a nation of less than 1 million people — hosts the only permanent U.S. military base in Africa, Camp Lemonnier. The base hosts conventional forces but also special forces and aerial drones believed to be flown over Yemen and Somalia.

President Ismail Omar Guelleh won a third term in 2011 in a vote colored by an opposition boycott and a clampdown on dissent. Guelleh's critics lament changes he made to the constitution in 2010 that scrubbed a two-term limit from the nation's bylaws.

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