THE PHILIPPINES: The Lonely Election

By early afternoon on election day, only a few people hurried to the polls along the palm-shaded streets of Bacolod City, capital of Occidental Negros Province in the Philippines. As the voters entered the rickety, paper-covered polling booths they glanced nervously at the carbine-carrying, khaki-clad youths who lounged ominously outside; they were members of the 1,500-strong "special police" hired by provincial Governor Rafael Lacson to make sure that the election would turn out the way he wanted it. Police carried off ballot boxes to his home an hour before the polls closed; some ballots had been marked and laid...

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