PH election news: Manny Pacquiao close to winning Senate seat, latest data shows

Pacquiao is placed ninth in the list of senatorial candidates with the highest votes so far.

Senate candidate and boxing legend Manny Pacquiao has all but won the Senate seat in the Philippines general elections.

The boxing icon, who is currently a member of the Philippine Congress, has secured more than 14 million votes when about 90 percent of the voting precincts returned the data.

Pacquiao, who retired from professional boxing last month after winning an emphatic win over Timothy Bradley, is placed ninth in the list of senatorial candidates.

As many as 12 candidates who win the highest votes make it to the Senate as per the complex election process.

The boxing star is more likely to win than not, as three of the candidates that trail him have a million less votes than him as per the latest tally released by the election commission (Comelec).

Eerier, Pacquiao cast his vote in his home town in southern Sarangani province. He ran the Senate race as part of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) of Vice President Jejomar Binay.

The latest poll survey had placed Pacquiao at the sixth position n a list of 12 candidates likely to win.

After casting his vote, Pacquiao said he left the Senate race to the will of God."I'm ready and willing to serve the people as a senator if God will allow it," he said, according to Mindanews.

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