Early results have begun to arrive in the Philippines' midterm elections, which have been dominated by a long-running feud between its two biggest political dynasties
The senate races pit candidates backed by President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr against those supported by Vice-President Sara Duterte, daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte
Unofficial partial vote counts point to a surprise swing towards independent politicians affiliated with neither Marcos nor Duterte
If Marcos' senate picks win more seats, it increases his chances of impeaching Sara Duterte for alleged misuse of state funds - which would bar her from seeking the presidency in 2028
Also on the ballot are candidates for the 317-member Congress, as well as hundreds of governors, mayors and city councillors
Voting closed at 19:00 local time (12:00 BST; 11:00 GMT), with unofficial results expected soon
Power, survival and revenge: What’s at stake in the Philippines election?
We're getting some early images from polling stations in the capital Manila. More than 68 million Filipinos are registered to vote in today's election.
Image source, Getty Images
Image source, Getty Images
Image source, Getty Images
Image source, Getty ImagesSupporters of Rodrigo Duterte gather for a rally in Davao City after the former president's arrest
He may have been detained for two months before the International Criminal Court, but former President Rodrigo Duterte is still in the running for mayor in his home base, Davao City.
His son Sebastian Duterte, who is the current mayor of Davao, is his running mate. It is unclear how duties will be split between father and son if they succeed.
The senior Duterte was mayor of the southern city of Davao for 22 years before he became president in 2016. During his presidential campaign he frequently touted Davao as a model for security policies he planned to roll out nationwide.
Last year, he admitted that he kept a “death squad” to crack down on crime in the city. Duterte remains hugely popular and influential in Davao City.
Image source, Getty ImagesIf you're just joining us, this is what we've been reporting on so far:
Jonathan Head
BBC South East Asia Correspondent
I’m at the Dr Alejandro Albert elementary school, one of the largest polling stations in the capital.
There are thousands of people here - they vote early in the Philippines because of the heat. It is all impressively well-organised with dozens of volunteers to help guide people on the voting process and showing them where to vote - they are casting ballots at several different schoolrooms here.
There are more than 18,000 posts being contested in this election, from city councilors to mayors, from provincial governors to congressmen and senators. So the ballot papers are quite complicated and many voters need some guidance on how to make their choices.
Although the Marcos Duterte feud overshadows this election, it isn’t the main factor deciding people’s votes. Personality and celebrity are what decide electoral contests here - people tend to vote for someone they know and like. Local contests are dominated by locally-prominent families, some of which have monopolized political positions for generations.
People do care about bread and butter issues like inflation and jobs more than ideology or clan loyalties, but it’s difficult to cut through the avalanche of showbiz-style campaigning and all the gushing promises made and assess how office-holders have really performed.
Filipinos are enthusiastic democrats, accustomed to perpetual disappointment, but they always seem to enjoy the show.
Violence around elections in the Philippines is not uncommon. This election has also seen deaths.
Local media outlet Rappler has reported that four people were killed in a pre-election clash on Sunday in Basilan, an island off the coast of Mindanao.
On 28 April, a party-list nominee, Leninsky Bacud, was shot dead in Manila.
Following the shooting, the chairperson of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), George Garcia said: "We condemn to the strongest possible terms these killings as it is the ballots that should reign in a democracy, not bullets."
Comelec has said "fewer than 20" candidates have been killed in this election campaign, which it said was an improvement on previous polls.
"This is much lower, very low compared to the past," Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco told the AFP.
In 2009, 58 people - mostly journalists - were massacred in the south, still considered the worst incident of election violence in the country's recent history.
Our South East Asia Correspondent Jonathan Head sets out the stakes for Monday's election in the Philippines.
Philippines election 2025: The Marcos-Duterte battle for power, survival and revenge
Joel Guinto
Live reporter
Image source, Getty ImagesImee Marcos (right) and Sara Duterte during a campaign event in Manila, the Philippines
Senator Imee Marcos, President Bongbong Marcos’ older sister, is fighting to secure one of the last slots in the senatorial race.
To boost her chances, she left her brother’s senatorial ticket and secured the endorsement of his main political foe: Vice-President Sara Duterte.
In fiercely fought elections, votes from the Duterte stronghold of southern Philippines often decide the outcome.
But Imee is walking a political tightrope: courting the Duterte vote at a time when her brother is fighting that family for his own political survival.
Imee has never mentioned her brother by name, and the president has not criticised her either. Filipino culture hates siblings fighting.
Image source, ReutersAs we've mentioned, for many, the focus of this election will be the senate races.
Apart from making laws, senators also have the power to approve or reject treaties, decide on the impeachment of top officials and hold high-profile investigations in aid of legislation. The Senate president, who is elected among the senators, is also in the line of succession after the vice-president.
Half of the current 24-member Senate was elected in 2022 and will serve until 2028.
Of the other half who were elected in 2019, seven are seeking reelection this year, four are not running as they have reached the limit of two successive six-year terms, while one resigned to replace Sara as education secretary after she resigned from the Marcos cabinet.
Alliances are shaky and shift easily. As a holding room for future presidents and vice presidents, senators must consider their ambitions before any political move. Except for Rodrigo Duterte, four of the last five presidents, including Marcos, were senators first.
Image source, ReutersThere are more than 18,000 elected positions up for grabs today in the Philippines.
Voting began at 07:00 local time (00:00 BST) and will run until 19:00 local time (12:00 BST).
The most closely-watched will be the 12 Senate seats available - from a total of 24 senators. The winners of those races could have a big impact on the outcome of Vice-President Sara Duterte's impeachment proceedings.
Senate members become jurors during impeachment proceedings. A two-thirds majority - at least 16 votes - is required for an impeachment to pass.
Mayors, vice-mayors and councillors are elected by city and municipality. Former president Rodrigo Duterte, 80, is the on the ballot for mayor of Davao, his home city, despite awaiting trial at the International Criminal Court in the Hague.
Of the 317 seats in the House of Representatives, 254 are voted directly by each district, the other 63 are elected from a party-list.
Notable among former President Rodrigo Duterte’s senatorial slate are his trusted aide Bong Go and former police chief Ronald dela Ros – both of whom oversaw Duterte’s “war on drugs”, in which thousands of suspected drug users and dealers were killed in controversial police operations.
The slate, known as DuterTen, also includes fugitive pastor Apollo Quiboloy, a movie star, a pop singer and a handful of Duterte loyalists.
Several of the candidates are members of the PDP-Laban, or Democratic Party of the Philippines, a respected pro-democracy party from the 1980s that served as the vehicle for Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign in 2016.
Image source, Getty ImagesBoxing star Manny Pacquiao is among those in Marcos' slate
Former movie stars, boxing champion Manny Pacquiao, senate veterans and members of long-running political dynasties are among those who make up Bongbong Marcos’ senatorial slate.
The Alliance for the New Philippines (Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas), an umbrella group formed by Marcos’ allies specifically for this election, includes parties controlled by powerful families and those backed by big businessmen.
Among the candidates from influential political families is Camille Villar, who is running to replace her mother Cynthia. Her older brother Mark Villar is also a senator.
Image source, Getty ImagesIt was a political dream team that won the 2022 Philippine general election by a landslide.
Bongbong Marcos was elected president, cementing his family’s stunning comeback, decades after his father, Ferdinand Marcos was overthrown from power.
Sara Duterte, who surveys at that time called a winnable presidential candidate, won as Marcos’ Vice President, setting the stage for her own presidential bid in six year’s time.
The alliance between these heirs of two strongmen presidents, or the "UniTeam", united the north (Marcos) with the south (Duterte) and ticked all the boxes in a political campaign that was heavy on personality and imagery.
But after their runaway election win, things started to sour. You can read more here.
Image source, Getty ImagesFormer President Rodrigo Duterte may be detained in The Hague thousands of miles away, but in his hometown of Davao City in the southern Philippines, he is poised to make a political comeback.
His name remains on the ballot and he is tipped to reclaim the post he held for decades before he became president in 2016. His youngest son Sebastian (the current mayor) is running as his vice-mayor.
If father Rodrigo and son Sebastian win, city hall will remain in the family, as it has for almost four decades now. Sara served as mayor there when her father was president.
Davao is a sprawling metropolis known for its durians and eagle sanctuaries - and Sara’s political propaganda casts her as the “eagle from the south”.
It is also where the Dutertes showcased their tough anti-crime policies, which they say made the city attractive to investors.
But critics and human rights groups say Davao City is the birthplace of Duterte’s death squad, accused of summarily executing hundreds of drug suspects. That is the backbone of the crimes against humanity charge that the Duterte patriarch is facing before the ICC.
For both families: power, survival and legacy.
For Bongbong Marcos, the election will be a referendum on his leadership, as well as an opportunity to gather enough support in the Senate to convict Sara Duterte in the Senate impeachment court.
With Sara’s father Rodrigo Duterte in jail at The Hague, blocking her from running for president could be the final nail in the Duterte family’s coffin as far as national politics are concerned.
With the country's presidency limited to a single six-year term, Marcos will also need to hand over power to a friendly successor to avoid prosecution that has befallen many of his predecessors.
For Sara, the election will be a barometer of support for her family - and whether she can capitalise on this for her presidential run in 2028. She has not formally declared her candidacy, but she is widely expected to run against whoever Marcos’ preferred successor is.
The Philippines is holding its mid-term election, where about 68.4 million registered voters across 7,600 islands will choose members of the Senate and the House of Representatives, as well as local chief executives.
The spectacular rivalry between the Marcos and Duterte families - the Philippines’ two main dynasties - will take centre stage, with both families and their allies fielding candidates for senators and other positions.
The Marcos-Duterte alliance won the last general election by a landslide in 2022, but divergent political agendas have led to a dramatic and very public falling out between the two families.
Notably, today’s result will also decide whether the Senate will uphold the impeachment of Sara Duterte for alleged misuse of state funds and bar her from seeking the presidency in 2028.