Poll will be test of leader’s standing

Press, 14 May 1984, Page 10

Poll will be test of leader’s standing

NZPA-AFP Manila Filipino voters will elect a new National Assembly today in a General Election seen as the first electoral test of President Ferdinand Marcos’s popularity since the assassination of his political arch-rival, Benigno Aquino, in August. Although the polls, the first since martial law was lifted three years ago, will not directly affect his grip on power, Mr Marcos has campaigned aggressively for his ruling New Society Movement, telling voters that the Opposition had no platform to tackle the country’s serious economic woes. The 45-day campaign for the election of the assembly to a six-year term ended at midnight on Saturday. New Society is widely expected to capture a majority of the 183 seats in the 200-member new Assembly to replace the one elected in 1976. Mr Marcos will appoint the remaining 17 members. The 1978 polls, which were generally believed to have been rigged, produced an Assembly described by observers as a mere rubberstamp. The outcome is not in doubt. Diplomatic sources said that the election would serve two main purposes: © Restore some credibility to the embattled Marcos Administration, whose image at home and abroad was badly tarnished by the Aquino killing. © Decide whether Mr Marcos can accommodate a real Opposition that can emerge as a credible alternative, deter a violent revolution, and blunt the growing appeal of the New People’s Army, a communist insurgent group. The key, the sources said, would be whether the polls can be “clean.” The official watch-dog, the Commission of Elections, said that 25 million

Filipinos had registered to vote. The number of candidates had dropped from 1034 to 990 — representing 43 parties — because of withdrawals. Boosting New Society’s chances will be its powerful machine, a divided Opposition and, according to Mr Marcos’s foes, widespread fraud. The opposition challenge will be spearheaded by the United Nationalist Democratic Organisation and the P.D.P.-Laban, which hope to capture 60 seats, mainly in metropolitan Manila, in the central Philippines, and in the southern island of Mindanao where N.P.A. and Muslim insurgents are active. But a section of the Opposition, including the late Mr Aquino’s younger brother, Butz, and former Senator Jose Diokno and Lorenzo Tanada, are boycotting the polls on the grounds that they served only “to legitimise a dictatorial regime.” Mr Aquino, who was to have led the Opposition drive in the polls, was shot dead on his return to Manila from three years of voluntary exile in the United States. Authorities said that a communist gunman had killed him but the Aquino family and the Opposition hold the Government responsible. The killing, which has yet to be solved by a board appointed by Mr Marcos, ignited a political and . economic crisis, including huge anti-Government protests, capital flights, and fears of a financial collapse. But Mr Marcos, who has been in power for 19 years, deftly managed to weather the storm. In an appeal to voters on Saturday he cited his achievements in the economic, energy and social fields, contrasting them with what he called the Opposition’s lack of an

alternative programme for the nation. But a recent nation-wide survey conducted by a church-business group found that only 47 per cent of respondents had been satisfied with Mr Marcos’s record. Pressure on Mr Marcos to hold free and fair elections have come from the Philippines’ main creditors — the country is saddled with a, staggering SUS 26 billion foreign debt — and from its closest ally, the United States, which maintains two key military installations near Manila. But a diplomatic source said this may simply mean a “return to the old rule of the game in which both sides are allowed to cheat.” But the well-funded New Society machine would have a clear advantage. Trying to prevent things from getting out of hand will be the National Citizens Movement for Free Elections, an independent body to monitor balloting in the 84,691 polling stations. “We’re growing strong and victory is in our grasp,” a buoyant Mr Marcos said to a nation-wide television and radio audience as his wife, Imelda, wept at an outdoor rally. The sound of a popular Opposition anthem had interrupted her closing campaign speech for government candidates.