The results of the 2022 presidential elections may be as divided as the 1992 elections and the next leader of the country may again be elected by a plurality vote, Pulse Asia President Ronald Holmes said Thursday.
“The smallest plurality vote that we saw was FVR at 23 percent and that contest basically had candidates getting at least around 1/4 to 1/5 of the voting support,” he told ANC’s Headstart, referring to former President Fidel V. Ramos, the eventual winner of the 1992 race.
“If you have 4 to 5 prominent candidates in 2022, it might end up to be as divided in terms of voting support as the 1992 elections,” Holmes said.
The latest Pulse Asia survey showed Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio as the most preferred presidential candidate among Filipinos for next year’s national elections.
Duterte-Carpio led the list of 12 probable presidential candidates with 20 percent, followed by senator Bongbong Marcos, the namesake son of the late dictator, with 15 percent, Manila Mayor Isko Moreno Domagoso with 13 percent, and Sen. Manny Pacquiao at 12 percent.
The daughter of President Rodrigo Duterte had said on Sept. 9 that she would no longer run for president in the 2022 elections after her father accepted his party’s nomination for vice president.
The latest Pulse Asia poll was conducted from September 6 to 11.
Seven candidates battled for the presidency in 1992, the first elections under a multi-party system which was installed after President Ferdinand Marcos was ousted from power.
Ramos, a former defense secretary, faced former Senate President Jovito Salonga, former House Speaker Ramon Mitra Jr., then-Vice President Salvador Laurel, former Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Tarlac Gov. Danding Cojuangco, and former First Lady Imelda Marcos.
According to government data, Ramos clinched 23 percent of the vote, with Defensor-Santiago coming in second with 19 percent, then Cojuangco with 18 percent and Mitra with 14 percent.