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PNP, AFP fail to stop Bayan Muna from winning

Furious campaigning by state forces and online trolls against progressive parties failed to stop Bayan Muna (BM) from gaining lost ground in yesterday’s midterm national elections.

BM is at the second spot with about 1.08 million votes as of 8:12 am today in partial and unofficial tallies by the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

BM’s votes represent 4.05% of 93.6% of election results tallied by the Comelec thus far, assuring the 2001 top party list group of at least two seats in the next congress.

“Despite many reports of fraud, the Rodrigo Duterte regime cannot defeat the people’s will,” BM second nominee Ferdinand Gaite told Kodao.

Gaite was referring to partisan election activities by the Philippine National Police (PNP) aimed at discouraging voters from choosing BM and other progressive parties in yesterday’s polls.

Officers of the Manila Police District were caught distributing PNP’s official newsletter “Pulis Serbis Balita” in various polling centers yesterday containing articles maligning BM and Kabataan Party.

Poll watchdog Kontra Daya also received reports of death threats and harassments against volunteers and supporters of the progressive parties in many parts of the country.

“The Duterte administration utilized its entire machinery—time, resources, power, influence as well as the military, police and others—to also push for its rotten candidates and parties for the partylist elections. We are not surprised that the parties Duterte openly endorsed are those charged with graft and corruption,” Gaite said.

Meanwhile, Gabriela Women’s Party and ACT Teachers Party are poised to win seats in the next congress.

Gabriela is currently at 12th spot with 434,319 votes representing 1.63% of party list votes cast.

ACT is at 17th place with 380,760 votes, representing 1.43% of party list votes cast.

Kabataan Party and Anakpawis are in the middle tier of the party list race  at 48th and 62nd places, respectively.

Kabataan has 189,830 votes, representing 0.71% of the votes with Anakpawis has 140,567 votes, representing 0.53 of the votes.

Member organizations of Kabataan Party are set to hold indignation rallies throughout the country this afternoon to protest fraud in yesterday’s polls as well as the delayed posting of results by Comelec’s faulty servers.# (Raymund B. Villanueva)