20 Million Crowd Polls in Philippine Election

More than 20 million voters jammed polling places today to elect the members of the first independent congress in the Philippines in more than 15 years.

Long lines formed soon after the polls opened at 7 a.m., and election officials forecast delays, both in the time it will take everyone to vote and in the official count.

Official results of the races for a new 24-member Senate and a 200-seat House of Representatives may not be known for several days, election officials said. The 24 senators are all being chosen at large nationwide, while one representative is being elected from each of the 200 congressional districts.

There were no voting machines or name-printed paper ballots, so each voter had to write in the names of all 24 senatorial candidates of his choice plus that of a congressional candidate in his district. Many voters waited in line for up to an hour. Election officials expressed concern about the delays and considered extending polling beyond the scheduled 4 p.m. closing time.

President Corazon Aquino has a slate of 24 pro-administration candidates running for the Senate, and she personally endorsed candidates in 122 of the 200 congressional districts. She called on the nation to conduct the balloting honestly and without violence.

More than 50 candidates and campaign workers were killed in pre-election violence--a record low for a Philippine election.

Chairman Ramon Felipe Jr. of the Commission on Elections told reporters that at least two more campaign workers were shot to death Sunday. He also warned of a possible plan by Aquino’s enemies to sabotage the election through violence, adding that the home of the commission’s operations chief was riddled with bullets early Sunday.

Felipe said the commission has taken control of 17 towns and provinces considered “hot spots,” and Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, the armed forces chief of staff, has deployed thousands of troops in 67 additional towns that the military has called “very critical.”

Military on Alert

The armed forces remained on red alert today, with all leaves canceled, in the wake of intelligence reports about disruption plans by elements still loyal to deposed President Ferdinand E. Marcos and by guerrillas of the Communist New People’s Army.

Marcos himself predicted Sunday, in an overseas telephone interview with Filipino reporters from his exile home in Hawaii, that Aquino’s opponents will win if the election is clean, and he appealed to citizens not to cheat. Marcos’ own bid for reelection in last year’s tainted campaign has been called one of the most fraudulent and violent in Philippine history, with most of the cheating done by his supporters.

Secessionist Boycott

In the southern Philippines, leaders of an Islamic secessionist army called Sunday for a boycott of the election by the nation’s 5 million Muslims after negotiations with the government over a Muslim autonomous region became deadlocked.

Nur Misuari, leader of the Moro National Liberation Front, said his armed irregulars would not use violence to enforce the boycott, but Felipe said that government election officials in the region were too frightened to man polling places.

A 24-member foreign observers team representing 11 nations, including the United States, monitored the voting.

The government authorized the National Movement for Free Elections, a Catholic Church-backed citizens group, to watch for corruption at the polls. That move was criticized by right-wing opposition leaders, who assert that the group is biased in favor of Aquino.

Quick Counts Planned

The watchdog group, as it has in previous elections, will conduct a “quick count” of election results, which is expected to be completed long before the official tally is announced. Several independent media organizations also planned their own unofficial tabulations, using a nationwide network of reporters.

Most of the pre-election surveys predicted that Aquino’s candidates will win a large majority in the Senate--16 to 20 of the 24 seats--and a slightly smaller majority in the House. Aquino’s leading House candidate, Ramon Mitra, predicted Sunday that the opposition will win no more than 60 of the 200 House seats.