Philippine leader Benigno Aquino called Friday on the trailing presidential candidates to unite against frontrunner Rodrigo Duterte, in a sensational finale to one of the nation's most divisive election campaigns. Aquino has repeatedly warned Duterte is a dictator-in-the-making, and made the plea after polling showed the favourite had kept a huge lead ahead of Monday's elections despite allegations he has overseen vigilante death squads and a spate of controversies over vulgar campaign speeches.
Aquino told CNN Philippines in an exclusive interview that he was trying to get the other four presidential candidates to unite to defeat Duterte, who he said was likely to get 30 percent of the vote. "The whole point is to get even two of them to unite... then we have more than 40 percent," Aquino said.
In the Philippines, a president is elected simply by who gets the most votes. Duterte has 33 percent support, with Senator Grace Poe next at 22 percent and administration pick Mar Roxas at 20 percent, according to the latest poll released on Friday by Social Weather Stations. Aquino said he had talked to Roxas, his longtime friend and fellow Liberal Party stalwart, and sent a text message to Poe to try and get them to forge an eleventh-hour partnership. This would mean one of the candidates withdrawing. If one did, they would ask Filipinos to instead vote for the other, but there are no guarantees the public would do so.
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