Ballot counting underway for Philippine midterm elections
Ballot counting is underway in the Philippine's midterm elections amid an intense standoff between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte.
Voters cast ballots on Monday at both the national and local level, halfway through the president's six-year term.
Up for grabs are half the 24 Senate seats, all seats in the House of Representatives and posts in provinces, cities and municipalities.
The most fiercely contested are the Senate seats, as the chamber is set to hold an impeachment trial against Sara as early as July. If convicted, she won't be able to run in the 2028 presidential election.
Local media report the presidential camp has the upper hand in the Senate elections so far, with the candidates supported by Marcos securing six seats, while Sara's choices hold only three seats.
But the president's camp might be on tenterhooks until the very end.
On Tuesday, Sara's father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, was declared the winner of the mayoral election in his home city Davao. His landslide victory comes despite him being detained thousands of miles away in The Hague. He was arrested in March under an International Criminal Court warrant over his so-called "war on drugs" in which thousands of people were killed.
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