Youth voters rejected the looming victory of Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr., a controversial dictator's son now set to win the Philippine presidency.

Activist groups and university students gathered at the headquarters of the Philippine Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Manila City on Tuesday May 10 and called for transparency after a glitch-marred election day on May 9.

The demonstrations come after Comelec said some 1,800 vote counting machines across the country reportedly malfunctioned on voting day, leaving people waiting for hours in line, with some still waiting to vote in their precincts past midnight despite the 7 PM cut-off. The numerous glitches reported during the election's conduct has sparked claims of election fraud and cast doubts on the poll's results.

Marcos Jr., the namesake and son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, is on the cusp of winning the presidency 36 years after a people's uprising that toppled his father's brutal reign under martial law. As of Tuesday afternoon, unofficial results show he had 30.8 million votes versus his nearest rival incumbent Vice President Leni Robredo, who had 14.7 million votes.

Human rights monitor Amnesty International said at least 3,240 were killed, 34,000 were tortured, and 70,000 were jailed during the elder Marcos’s strongman rule. His family is believed to have amassed a staggering 5 to 10 billion USD as they plundered the national coffers and plunged the Philippines into debt. The Philippine Commission on Good Governance was established to recover the Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth after they fled the country in 1986.

Academics said that Bongbong's campaign has been fuelled by 'lies and distortion' to re-write history. He is even reportedly wanted in the United States for contempt of court.

'There's a spectrum of lies and distortion in these videos,' says Fatima Gaw at the University of the Philippines Department of Communications Research.

'There is outright denial of the atrocities of the martial era. There's also a lot of distortion, claims of economic progress during the so-called golden years of the Philippines, by cherry picking particular details.'