Tens of millions of Filipinos jammed into schools and other voting stations on Monday to elect a new president, with anti-establishment firebrand Rodrigo Duterte the shock favourite after an incendiary campaign full of profanity-laced threats to kill criminals.
The elections will also see Filipinos choose more than 18,000 other positions, down to the local village councillor level, in another milestone for a nation that has struggled to cement democracy after emerging from dictatorship three decades ago.
Duterte, the longtime mayor of the southern city of Davao, has hypnotised millions with his vows of brutal but quick solutions to the nation’s twin plagues of crime and poverty, which many believe have worsened despite strong economic growth in recent years.
The candidate’s critics have warned he will plunge the country into another dark period of dictatorship and turmoil, after a “People Power” revolution ended the regime of Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.