MANILA: Philippine President Gloria Arroyo took a strong lead yesterday over chief rival Fernando Poe in a government-sanctioned election “quick-count” as a watchdog body said it saw no signs of massive cheating alleged by the opposition.
The civilian poll watchdog National Citizens Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), which is authorised to conduct an unofficial tally of the votes for the May 10 elections, said their latest count found Arroyo with 3,408,988 votes to Poe's 2,414,479 votes.
