MANILA, May 11 (Xinhua) — It has been a close fight for Philippine vice president between administration bet congresswoman Leni Robredo and Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son and namesake of late president Ferdinand Marcos.

According to partial and unofficial tally as of 9:45 a.m. local time on Wednesday from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Transparency Server, Robredo has maintained a slim lead over Marcos with 13,940,458 votes and 13,716,603 votes, respectively.

The unofficial results came from 95.37 percent out of 92,509 clustered precincts nationwide.

Marcos, who was initially leading the race, asked the Comelec and the election watchdog, Parish Pastoral Council For Responsible Voting (PPCRV), to stop releasing the unofficial count and wait for the official canvass to be conducted by Congress later this month.

Marcos campaign adviser Jonathan dela Cruz said their request was meant to prevent a situation where the unofficial quick count results and the official canvass of the National Board of Canvassers would differ and create confusion as well as create doubts on the result of the elections.

But the PPCRV refused to heed the call by continuing to release the partial and unofficial results. The PPCRV Transparency Server is one of the three recipients of the results of the elections coming from the vote counting machines from the clustered precincts nationwide.

Robredo has denied that her camp was engaged in vote rigging.

She said that when she was behind Marcos, she was not accusing anyone of cheating, noting that in the surveys prior to the May 9 elections, she was also topping the polls.

The Senate and House of Representatives will jointly conduct the official canvassing of votes for president and vice president later this month.

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