Philippines in race to make May 10 vote happen
Sunday, 9 May 2010
MANILA, May 8 (AFP): Philippine presidential candidates wrapped up their election campaigns in a festival-style atmosphere Saturday, as polling officials raced to deliver vote-counting software to remote precincts.
Three months of intense campaigning were due to officially end at midnight with 50-year-old bachelor Benigno Aquino looking set to win Monday's election in a landslide and continue the legacy of his democracy-champion parents.
"The dawn is near... the people are hungry for a new leadership," Aquino told a cheering crowd of roughly 10,000 people at his final major campaign rally in Manila late on Friday night.
Aquino's rally featured pop singers, movie stars and comedians delivering routines that were flashed on giant screens.
The skits included a woman dressed as an angel telling the crowd she was sent from heaven by Aquino's late mother, former president Corazon Aquino who led the revolution that overthrew dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.
Three months of intense campaigning were due to officially end at midnight with 50-year-old bachelor Benigno Aquino looking set to win Monday's election in a landslide and continue the legacy of his democracy-champion parents.
"The dawn is near... the people are hungry for a new leadership," Aquino told a cheering crowd of roughly 10,000 people at his final major campaign rally in Manila late on Friday night.
Aquino's rally featured pop singers, movie stars and comedians delivering routines that were flashed on giant screens.
The skits included a woman dressed as an angel telling the crowd she was sent from heaven by Aquino's late mother, former president Corazon Aquino who led the revolution that overthrew dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.