Australia’s conservative government held on to power at national elections thanks to a highly effective negative campaign warning voters against the centre-left Labor Party’s large policy reform agenda, analysts said Sunday. Labor led every opinion poll in the two years prior to Saturday’s election but fell well short of a parliamentary majority after the vote, in a surprise result for the ruling Liberal-National coalition. Analysts said opposition leader Bill Shorten’s unpopularity with voters and his […]
Other News
Fire hits Glorietta 2 mall in Makati
(Eagle News)–A fire hit Glorietta 2 mall in Makati on Sunday, May 19. Fire authorities said the blaze hit a milk tea shop that was still under construction at 6:20 p.m. The fire was put out at 6:31 p.m. No one was reported injured.
India’s acrimonious election comes to an end
by Sailendra Sil in Kolkata and Abhaya Srivastava in New Delhi Voting in one of India’s most acrimonious elections in decades entered its final day Sunday as Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi scrambled to hang on to his overall majority. The seventh and final round of voting ended the world’s biggest election with 900 million eligible voters from Goa’s beaches to Mumbai’s slums and Ladakh’s Himalayan monasteries. Long queues formed outside polling stations in […]
European elections: voting differs across countries
Each country in the European Union has its own rules for voting in the May 23-26 elections to the bloc’s parliament. Here is an overview. – Who votes when? – Twenty-one of the EU’s 28 members go to the polls on May 26, a Sunday, including France, Germany and Poland. Britain and The Netherlands vote on Thursday May 23; Ireland on the 24th; Latvia, Malta and Slovakia on the 25th. In the Czech Republic, voters […]
EU fears voter apathy despite populist surge
by Christian SPILLMANN Four days before Europe’s 400 million potential voters are called to the polls, EU leaders hope to reverse the usual low turnout to avoid opening the door to eurosceptic forces. The European Parliament, that will be elected in votes across 28 nations between Thursday and Sunday, has never been more important in framing the continent’s laws. But each such continent-wide vote since the first one in 1979 has seen a lower turnout […]
Austrian president calls for September snap elections
Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen said Sunday he wanted snap elections to take place in September after the government collapsed over a corruption scandal. “My preference is for early elections in September, if possible the beginning of September,” he told journalists after holding talks with Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. The legal procedures to fix the date will now have to take place over the coming weeks, with Van der Bellen set to hold further talks […]
Oil producers meet to discuss output amid Iran tension
Major crude producers are set to meet Sunday to discuss how to stabilise a volatile oil market amid rising US-Iran tensions in the Gulf, which threaten to disrupt supply. Key OPEC members and other major suppliers including Russia will assess the oil market and examine compliance to production cuts agreed late last year. But the subject of Iran, which is not present, will dominate the one-day meeting of the OPEC+ group. It comes days after […]
In photos: President Duterte with Bong Go in Malacañang amid rumors the chief executive had been confined in a hospital
(Eagle News)–In these pictures released by Bong Go on Sunday, President Rodrigo Duterte is seen with his former aide in Bahay Pagbabago in the Malacañang Complex. The pictures came out after rumors President Duterte had been confined in the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan due to a cardiac arrest. The Palace has since denied the rumors, saying Duterte was merely resting in Malacañang.
Palace: No truth to rumors President Duterte confined in San Juan hospital
(Eagle News)—The Palace on Sunday, May 19, denied President Rodrigo Duterte was confined in a hospital in San Juan. “There is no truth to the rumor circulating that President Rodrigo Roa Duterte is confined in Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan,” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said. He said the President was “in his residence at the Palace signing papers.” Panelo added however that the President was “neither confirming nor denying that he went to […]
LRTA assures public LRT-2 system “safe” despite train collision
(Eagle News)—The Light Rail Transit Authority on Sunday, May 19, gave the assurance the LRT-2 system was still “safe” following the collision of two of its trains. In a statement, the LRTA said LRTA Administrator General Reynaldo Berroya has already ordered a fact-finding team to determine the cause of the incident and to “make recommendations to prevent the recurrence of the same incident in the future, and to assess the response and action taken by […]
PHIVOLCS: No tsunami threat to PHL following 6.8-magnitude quake off Loyalty Islands in Pacific
(Eagle News)–There is no tsunami threat to the Philippines. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology made the remark after a 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck southeast of Loyalty Islands in New Caledonia in the Pacific on Sunday, May 19. PHIVOLCS said the quake hit at 9:23 a.m. It had a depth of focus of 14 kilometers.
Villar maintains lead in Senate race
(Eagle News)–Reelectionist Senator Cynthia Villar continued to lead the Senate race on Sunday, May 19, based on partial and unofficial results from the Commission on Elections transparency server. Villar had 25,116,310 votes vis à vis Grace Poe’s 21,911,481 votes. In third place was Bong Go, with 20,453,347 votes. Below are the other Senate bets in the winning circle: 4. Pia Cayetano – 19,632,440 votes 5. Bato dela Rosa – 18,802,305 votes 6. Sonny Angara – […]





