Philippine Presidential Elections
AS OF 2026-08-30 · 18 CONTESTS · presidential, 9 May 2022 · WIKIPEDIA, NATIONAL ELECTORAL AUTHORITIES
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Every Philippine presidential election from the Commonwealth of 1935 to 2022: a competitive two-party republic that repeatedly threw out its incumbents, the martial-law years and the stolen count of 1986, and the single six-year term that has produced winners on 40% of the vote ever since.
Term
6 years
single, no re-election, since 1987
Elections since 1935
18
presidential contests
Largest majority
58.8%
Bongbong Marcos, 2022
Every presidential election
Every Philippine presidential election since 1935, newest first. The Japanese-occupation vote of 1943 and the boycotted contest of 1981 are labelled as what they were.
The Fifth Republic · 1992–
People Power removed Marcos and the 1987 constitution gave the president a single six-year term, which is why every election here has an open field and why pluralities of 40% or less have repeatedly been enough to win. Marcos's son took 58.8% in 2022, the largest majority since his father's.
Martial law · 1972–1985
Marcos declared martial law in 1972 rather than leave office, held a referendum-style election in 1981 that the opposition boycotted, and called a snap election in 1986 that he claimed to have won. The count was so brazen that the computer operators walked out on television.
The Third Republic · 1949–1969
A two-party system of Nacionalistas and Liberals that was genuinely competitive and genuinely violent, with turnout above 75% and a habit of turning out incumbents. Magsaysay, Macapagal and Marcos each took the presidency from a sitting party.
The Commonwealth · 1935–1946
Elected under American sovereignty from 1935, with independence promised for 1946. Quezon won twice; the 1943 election was held under Japanese occupation by a hand-picked assembly and is listed here as what it was.
The long arc in charts
Hover any point for the exact figure.
Turnout since 1946
Consistently high by democratic standards, above 75% for most of the post-war period, and rising again since 2010.
The winner's share
Landslides at the start and the end, pluralities in between: Ramos won in 1992 with 23.6%, the lowest winning share on this page.
Records & superlatives
How Philippine presidential elections work
One round, one term
The president is elected by simple plurality with no runoff, for a single six-year term with no re-election. With four or five serious candidates that has repeatedly produced presidents on less than 40% of the vote.
The vice president runs separately
Voters cast a separate ballot for vice president, so the two offices regularly go to rivals. It is a standing source of instability and has twice put the losing presidential ticket's running mate a heartbeat away.
1986
Marcos called a snap election, the official count gave him the win, and the computer technicians tabulating it walked off the job on live television. The People Power uprising removed him within three weeks.
Names that repeat
Marcos, Aquino, Macapagal, Estrada, Duterte. Philippine presidential politics runs on families, and the ballot here reads like a genealogy.