IT’S BEEN MORE THAN A WEEK since the election for president of the Philippines was held and the results are nowhere near official. Not that anyone has demanded a recount (yet) or there’s any dispute over chads. And it’s not because the courts have intervened. In fact, this waiting game is perfectly normal. With 35 million ballots cast in a country consisting of more than 7,000 islands, the tallying is expected to take a month. And did I mention the votes are counted by hand?

Nevertheless, according to exit polling done by the independent Social Weather Stations, current president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is predicted to win reelection, defeating her nearest opponent, action-movie star Fernando Poe Jr., 41 percent to 32 percent. More crucial is NAMFREL (the National Citizen’s Movement for Free Elections), which is the only group sanctioned by the government to conduct their own “national quick count,” and who, as of yesterday, had Arroyo leading Poe by 1.4 million votes.