President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has won the Philippine presidential election by less than one million votes over action movie hero Fernando Poe Jr, a senior elections commission official said on Monday.
Arroyo's political coalition also gained the majority of seats at stake in the Philippine Congress, improving prospects she can push through crucial reform legislation.
A senior official of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) leaked to reporters results of the tallies for president showing Arroyo won by only 900,000 votes over Poe based on 174 certificates of canvass (COCs) that the poll body received.
The same copies of COCs were also the basis on which the elections commission counted votes in the Congressional races.
"Don't quote me, but Arroyo won (by) less than one million votes," said the poll official, who did not want to be identified, adding that the president got 12,409,109 votes against the actor's 11,486,601.
The Philippine legislature convened a joint session on Monday afternoon to begin an official tally of votes for president and vice president. The legislature aims to proclaim the winners of the May 10 elections in a week's time.
Ballot boxes containing the COCs are to be delivered to House of Representatives on Tuesday for the count. Poe's camp has charged widespread cheating in the election and has threatened to stage "people power" protests.
Edgardo Angara, a senator and leader of the opposition bloc supporting Poe, expressed surprise over the leak.
"I think it's an outrageous statement and wholly uncalled for if it's true," Angara told Reuters. "He has no business saying that because the constitutional body that should make that kind of announcement is the Congress based on a national canvass..."
An unofficial tally by independent watchdog National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) showed Arroyo leading Poe by three percent - roughly the same margin of victory the election commission official disclosed.
The elections commission proclaimed on Monday night eleven winners in the Senate race, six from the pro-Arroyo coalition and five from the opposition.
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