MANILA (Reuters) – Presidential frontrunner Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino was poised for a decisive victory in yesterday’s elections in the Philippines despite technical problems that caused long delays but did not derail the polls as feared.

Unofficial tallies of 57 percent of votes cast showed Aquino well in front with 40.6 percent, ahead of former President Joseph Estrada in second place with 25.7 percent, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said.

That was in line with opinion polls last week which gave Aquino a commanding 20-point lead.

Problems with new ballot machines forced many Filipinos to wait for hours to vote — including Aquino himself who faced a four-hour delay.

“It lacked prior testing so there were a lot of problems,” he said after finally casting his ballot.