Israel congratulates Philippines for 'demonstrating democracy' in 2022 polls
MANILA, Philippines — Israel applauded the Philippines for exercising democracy in its elections, days after other countries noted the "smooth and peaceful" conduct of the 2022 polls.
"We congratulate the Philippines for demonstrating democracy through the national and local elections last May 9," the Embassy of Israel in Manila said in a statement on Friday.
The embassy said the country will continue to closely work with the incoming administration to "strengthen the friendly historic ties of our nations and to deepen the existing partnerships in agriculture, food security, water, tourism, innovation and technology, defense, among others."
This comes amid allegations of electoral fraud from citizens protesting the partial tally, the declaration of the failure of elections in some barangays in Lanao del Sur, and reports about broken vote counting machines (VCMs) on the day of the polls which caused delays in the voting process in some precincts.
READ: Not even halfway through voting day, nearly 1,900 vote counting machines marred with 'common issues'
China's foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Wednesday that he congratulates the country on the "smooth" presidential election.
Earlier this week, U.S State Department spokesman Ned Price said that "from a technical standpoint, the casting and counting of votes were done in line with international standards and without signficant incident."
Japan and Australia and regional bloc European Union also congratulated the country for having conducted peaceful elections.
Latest partial, unofficial results from the Commission on Elections' transparency server show that Marcos is leading by a huge margin, with 31.10 million votes versus his archrival Vice President Leni Robredo, who currently has 14.82 million votes.
Meanwhile, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio is leading the vice presidential race with 31.56 million votes compared to the second placer Sen. Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan who garnered 9.23 million votes.
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