(Reuters) - Automated voting machines were being tested and sealed across the Philippines ahead of Monday's elections as officials rushed to fix a technical problem, with some violence-prone areas placed under special control.
Campaigning ended on Saturday for nearly 18,000 local and national positions, with Senator Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino the favorite to become president after two main opinion polls showed he had a lead of about 20 points over his nearest rivals.
Analysts said Aquino might not win by as much on May 10 as the polls suggested, and could still potentially be overtaken as he lacked the national party organization of his rivals, who are better able to get their supporters out to vote. [ID:nSGE6460D0] Former president Joseph Estrada, who was removed from power by an army-backed popular uprising in 2001 and later convicted of plunder before being pardoned, has gained late momentum to catch up with former frontrunner Senator Manny Villar.
Gilberto Teodoro, candidate of the outgoing administration, is placed fourth with single-digit levels of support in opinion polls, while five other candidates registered minimal support.
A clear and accepted winner would be the most favorable outcome for investors, unless it was Estrada, while a disputed or inconclusive outcome would be expected to weaken markets.
Fighting corruption and reducing poverty had been the key themes of the campaigns, but candidates have not been specific on details, including how to tackle the large budget deficit.
Term limits prevent unpopular President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo from running again, but she is running for a seat in the lower house of Congress, as are a number of family members.
Analysts and opponents have said she wants to become speaker of the lower house so that she can block any investigation into her administration and even engineer a shift to a parliamentary system where she could be prime minister.
AUTOMATION, VIOLENCE CONCERNS
The discovery of a problem in vote counting machines sparked a late recall of more than 76,000 memory cards and heightened concerns about whether the country's first automated vote would succeed or be susceptible to breakdowns and fraud.
"By yesterday night, we already more than 40 percent of all the precincts tested and sealed, with very consistent, positive results," Cesar Flores, the president for Asia of Smartmatic, the company supplying the voting machines, told ANC television.
The election commission Comelec has said it expects 95 percent of machines to have been tested in time for Monday's vote. The remaining 5 percent, representing about 3.3 million votes, were in remote and violence-prone areas.
"We are optimistic that this can be higher, but it is hard to tell at the moment. We need to find out about ... where Comelec is the one doing the final delivery to the municipality because of security concerns," Flores said.
Comelec has placed seven areas, including the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), under control of a taskforce of election officials, police and armed forces due to the risk of election-violence.
Last November, 57 people were killed in Mindanao in the country's worst incident of election violence. [ID:nSGE6440E3]. In an open letter to Filipinos, the head of the armed forces asked for political leaders to show statesmanship and magnanimity and put national interest and security above all else.
General Delfin Bangit said the forces shared the public's concerns about the technical problems with the vote-counting machines, but he remained hopeful they would be overcome. "As guardians of our democratic institutions, we, your soldiers, are prepared and intent to safeguard your votes and your most fundamental right to choose our leaders," he said.
(Reporting by John Mair; Editing by Sugita Katyal)
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