Allies of Philippine President win big in midterm polls
Allies of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte won a historic victory in the country’s mid-term elections, according to the final results announced on May 22.
12 new members of the Senate (Source: cnnphilippines.com)
Hanoi (VNA) – Allies of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte won ahistoric victory in the country’s mid-term elections, according to the finalresults announced on May 22.
Duterte backers won both houses of thelegislature. They won nine out of the 12 seats up for grabs in the 24-memberSenate. The remaining were taken by three nominally unaligned politicians.
With the results, the number of seats inthe Senate held by opposition is four out of the 24 seats.
The results opened a path for Duterte tomake good on his call to bring back the death penalty and advance his projectto rewrite the Constitution.
His allies also kept control of the lowerHouse of Representatives, which earlier approved legislation to bring backcapital punishment and re-write the Constitution, but faced disapproval fromthe upper house.
Earlier, on May 13, nearly 62 millionFilipinos registered to vote to elect new members of the Senate and the Houseof Representatives, as well as city councillors and mayors.–VNA
At least three explosions rocked Cotabato city and neighbouring Maguindanao province in the southern Philippines just a few hours before a national midterm election, the country’s military and police authorities announced on May 13.
According to the preliminary results of the Philippines’ Commission on Elections on May 14, President Rodrigo Duterte’s allies are headed for a sweeping victory in the mid-term Senate elections.
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12 new members of the Senate (Source: cnnphilippines.com) 
