Frontrunner Rodrigo Duterte has taken a clear lead over his closest rivals in the Philippines presidential election, local media have said.
As per data released by the Commission on Elections, the Davao city mayor has taken a lead of around 15 percent over Manuel Mar Roxas while former dictator Ferdinand Marcos' son Bongbong Marcos is leading in the vice-presidential polls.
Senator Grace Poe, who had led the opinion polls in the early stages of the campaign, was pushed to the third spot with about 22 percent votes in early count. Vice-President Joejomar Binay was in the fourth position with about 14 percent of votes.
Even as voting ended at 5 pm local time, Comelec extended polling by another hour in certain areas where the voting started at 9 am.
After more than 90,000 polling precincts closed, early results for all positions started trickling in. The officials had said earlier that results from precincts could be available as early as 10 minutes after the polls closed.
The full election results can be checked on the Commission on Elections website www.pilipinaselectionresults2016.com.
Click here for the latest lead positions updated by Comelec. After logging into the site, users can choose the area from where they want the lead updates.
"The ERs contain all the results from the president down to the last candidate. Which means, we can already total them even if we would not announce it," Comelec Spokesman James Jimenez said earlier.
The official declaration of election results in the Philippines is a long-drawn process. As per the Comelec Resolution No. 9981, the process will last until June 8, 2016.
The commission will declare the winners between May 13 and 15. After the last presidential election in 2013, President Benigno Aquino and Vice President Binay were declared winners a full four weeks after the elections.
The new president and vice-president will take office on June 30.
The Philippines elections 2016 were marked by high voltage campaign, controversies, a qualification row surrounding candidate Grace Poe and the hacking of Comelec site that compromised personal data of millions of voters.
The election commission said about 54 million registered voters were eligible to cast their votes. Of this, around 20 million were between the ages of 18 and 35. More than 44,000 candidates contested for various positions ranging from those of the president to local council representatives.
The elections were held for more than 18,000 positions across the country, Including those of 81 governors and 145 mayors.
A large Filipino Diaspora of 1.38 million people were also eligible for the absentee voting, Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista said.
As many as 100 election observers from a number of countries were on the ground on the polling day.
