Philippines set for Presidential election

The Philippines Presidential campaign enters its final phase this week. Surveys show Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino to have a strong lead over his rivals, even though his campaign has been dogged by a contentious land reform issue.

At the centre of the dispute - his family's refusal to comply with a government directive to distribute land to farmers. Senator Aquino's family owns the Hacienda Luisita sugar plantation.

Meanwhile, the Philippine election commission ordered the recall Tuesday of 76,000 memory cards to be used in the country's first automated elections next week after some were found to be defective, heightening jitters over a possible failure of the new system.

The glitches just six days before 50 million Filipino voters elect a new president, vice president and officials to fill 17,000 national and local posts, prompted calls for a postponement of the election and renewed appeals for a parallel manual count of votes.

Philippine elections are notorious for violence and fraud, and many candidates and political parties have expressed fears of high-tech cheating.

The Commission on Elections found the defects during its final testing Monday of the automated system, spokesman James Jimenez said. It led the commission to stop the testing and sealing of the machines for security, and to order the recall of all compact flash cards for reconfiguration, Jimenez said.

- Asian Tribune -