Election Update

Although CNN Philippines reports that the results are unofficial, Duterte is leading with 15,823,935 votes (as of 8:40 a.m. of May 11) over 9,647,280 votes for Manuel "Mar" Roxas II and 8,903,937 for Grace Poe. Both Roxas and Poe have conceded to Duterte.

In the U.S., when we know which Presidential candidate has won the election, we immediately know who won the election for Vice President. The two candidates are a united ticket; they win or lose together. That isn't the way it works in Philippines. Although two candidates may run as a team, so to speak, the two are voted on separately. The two eventual winners might not be of the same party.

Leni Robredo, who currently leads the vice presidential race with 13,939,063 votes, is a member of the same political party as 2nd place Pesidential candidate, Roxas. Three of the six Vice Presidential candidates belong to the Nacionalista Party.

At the time of this writing, two of the Vice Presidential candidates have over 13 million votes each, with 200,000 votes separating them. One VP candidate is even going so far as to claim the leading VP candidate is part of a Liberal Party plot to impeach Duterte after he becomes President.

Sounds like American Presidential politics to me.