The dark side of electoralism: Opinion polls and voting in the 2016 philippine presidential election

College

College of Liberal Arts

Department/Unit

Political Science

Document Type

Article

Source Title

Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs

Volume

35

Issue

3

First Page

15

Last Page

38

Publication Date

1-1-2016

Abstract

© 2016, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies. All rights reserved. Despite the limits of elections as a mechanism to secure accountability and ensure substantive representation, the 2016 elections drew the highest turnout across elections held since the political transition in 1986, a clear indication of electoralism. The high turnout may be a result of a relatively tightly contested race, with each of the main contenders appealing to constituencies that they symbolically represent. Nonetheless, the 2016 Presidential elections remained personality-oriented, media driven and political clan dominated. The eventual winner, Rodrigo Roa Duterte, garnered the presidency given a combination of factors: the clarity of his campaign message – focused on curbing a single problem (criminality, in general, and the illegal drug trade, in particular) that he elevated as the most serious concern that the next president should address; significant support from a geographic area (Mindanao) and associated ethno-linguistic groups (i.e., Bisaya); and, serious questions of character and competence raised against his opponents (i.e. Binay, Poe and Roxas).

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Digitial Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1177/186810341603500302

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