By Sui Lee Wee, Camille Elemia and Jason Gutierrez

MANILA — Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son and namesake of the ousted dictator, edged closer to a triumph in the presidential election in the Philippines as early election data shared by the government put him in a commanding lead over Leni Robredo, his closest rival.

With about 84% of the election returns counted in a preliminary tally as of early Tuesday (10) Manila time, Marcos had more than 27 million votes, according to ABS-CBN, a local broadcaster with access to official data. He had more than twice the votes of his closest rival, Leni Robredo, the vice president. That put him on the path for the biggest margin of victory in a presidential race in the Philippines since the 1980s, when Corazon Aquino was elected in the wake of the ouster of Marcos’ father in the ‘People Power’ uprising of millions of Filipinos.

But by the time polls closed at 7 p.m. Monday (9), accounts of alarming irregularities had been reported across the country: malfunctioning voting machines, insufficient numbers of backup machines, complaints that voters had been left off registration rolls and that their ballots had been tampered with.

Marcos’ lead was so strong that it appeared unlikely Robredo could prevail. However, in a speech to his supporters Monday night, with days of official vote counting ahead, he urged patience.

“It’s not over yet,” he said. “Let us keep watch over our votes. And if I do get lucky, I am hoping for your unending help and trust.”

A victory for Marcos would be likely to lead to democracy regressing further in the Philippines, where democratic institutions have been obliterated or weakened under President Rodrigo Duterte. Impunity could prevail — Marcos, who is known by his boyhood nickname “Bongbong,” has indicated that he would shield Duterte from an investigation by the International Criminal Court for a violent drug war that has claimed thousands of victims.

“Personally, I’m devastated,” said Sol Iglesias, an assistant professor of political science at the University of the Philippines Diliman. “This is a dashing of the hopes that there will be a U-turn away from the backsliding towards authoritarian rule that was begun by President Duterte.”

Spontaneous celebrations erupted outside Marcos’ campaign headquarters on the EDSA boulevard, where millions of Filipinos had gathered in peaceful protest against his father more than three decades ago. Supporters sang a martial law anthem, waved the Philippines flag and chanted, “Bongbong, Sara!” (Sara Duterte, the daughter of President Duterte, is running for vice president in support of Marcos.)

The official count begins at 1 p.m. local time Tuesday, and a winner is expected to be announced in the coming days. It remains to be seen if Marcos will claim victory before that process is complete.

Human rights activists, intellectuals and hundreds of thousands of young people had opposed Marcos’ bid for the presidency, fearing that democracy would regress even further under his rule. To many victims of the older Marcos’ brutal rule, his son’s win is tantamount to an erasure of their own experiences because his family has spent years distorting their shared memory of the atrocities committed during the martial law era.

Before the election, every opinion poll had showed that Marcos would win the presidency and do so with the widest margin in three decades — an extraordinary comeback for a family that was hounded out of the country in 1986.

Marcos ran on a platform of unity, saying that he “would help Filipinos rise again.” But many of his policy proposals remain thin, and he has accepted few media interviews. He appealed to a public that has grown disillusioned with the country’s brand of democracy and its failure to address the basic needs of its citizens. Poverty is widespread, inequality has widened, and corruption remains rampant.

Marcos served as vice governor, governor and congressman in Ilocos Norte, the family stronghold, for most of the period between the late 1980s and 2010. That year, he entered the national political scene when he was elected senator.

The government said that more than 1,800 voting machines had malfunctioned during the day, and that there were only 1,100 backup machines nationwide. The number of machines that had broken down was more than double than in the 2016 presidential election, according to a local election watchdog, Kontra Daya.

The Legal Network for Truthful Elections, an advocacy group made up of lawyers, said it had observed election irregularities, election offenses and technical problems during voting, including in 13 places where vote-counting machines had malfunctioned. Its officers had seen people masquerading as election officials to assist voters, according to the organization.

As night fell, the hashtag #ExtendVotingHoursPH was trending on Twitter.

A winner is expected to be announced in the coming days. In previous elections, officials from rural provinces with poor internet connections have had to physically transport counted ballots to Manila, the capital.

Election violence erupted over the weekend and Monday after a shooting between two groups linked to rivals for mayor left four people dead and a grenade attack wounded nine others.

The shooting occurred Sunday in the northern province of Ilocos Sur. Separately, local police in the southern town of Maguindanao said five rounds of grenades were fired in a municipal hall, prompting an exchange of gunfire with police. In Lanao del Sur, videos on social media showed people storming a voting centre to destroy ballots and machines. An election official said the government was investigating the episode.

-New York Times