ALLIES of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte have dominated a midterm Senate election according to unofficial results yesterday, indicating growing support for the maverick leader and broad public endorsement of his controversial rule. Nine of 12 Senate seats available look set to go to pro-Duterte candidates and the rest to independents, unofficial results showed, with the opposition that campaigned strongly against his presidency failing to make the cut. Monday’s ballot for more than 18,000 posts, among them hundreds of mayors, governors, and Congressmen, was billed as a referendum on the firebrand president, with special focus on his bid to consolidate power in the all-important upper house. A Senate majority would be a boon for Duterte, lessening the chance of censures and house probes against his government and making it easier to co-opt independents and sideline opponents to push through bills vital to his ambitious reform agenda. “This president’s popularity and transferability of his popularity is unprecedented to say the least, despite all the controversies,” said political analyst Edmund Tayao. “You expect normally two or three candidates from the opposition to win but this is a wipe-out.” Candidates leading the Senate race include the president’s closest aide, the daughter of late President Ferdinand Marcos, the wife of the country’s richest man, a jailed politician recently cleared of plunder, and a police general who led a war on drugs that killed thousands in its first few months. They will join 12 Senate incumbents of which only four are from the opposition, including the biggest critic of Duterte’s war on drugs, Leila de Lima. (SD-Agencies) |