Philippines election

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo looked likely to win six more years as president of the Philippines in yesterday's elections, two exit polls showed, after a bitter contest with action movie hero Fernando Poe Jr.

Victory would give Ms Arroyo her first real mandate to lead the largely Roman Catholic nation of 82 million people after three years of only partly successful efforts to tackle corruption, insurgencies, huge debts, pervasive poverty and a weak economy.

The official results will take a month, leaving Filipinos and foreign investors in limbo and Ms Arroyo's government hamstrung with the potential for instability during the drawn-out count.

Despite 114 poll-related deaths since December, including at least 20 on Sunday and yesterday, a military spokesman said voting was "generally peaceful" with no sign of feared attacks by al Qaeda-linked militants or plots to disrupt the vote.

Interviews with nearly 21,000 people by independent radio network dzRH showed Ms Arroyo with 36.5 per cent of the ballots to 31.4 per cent for Mr Poe, the strongest of her four challengers.

A preliminary exit poll by state-run television showed Ms Arroyo with a five-to-10 percentage point margin over Mr Poe.