Aquino, Binay top ABS-CBN-Pulse Asia exit poll

Sen. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III and Makati City Mayor Jejomar "Binay" topped the exit poll of ABS-CBN and polling firm Pulse Asia.

Based on the results, disclosed Tuesday evening, Aquino got 41.4% of the votes, while former President Joseph Estrada got 29.2%.

Sen. Manny Villar came in third with 16%, followed by Gilbert Teodoro at 8.8%, and Eddie Villanueva with 2.7%.

Sen. Richard Gordon (1%) and the rest of the tail enders--Vetallano Acosta (0.7%), Jamby Madrigal (0.3%), John Carlos de los Reyes (0.2%), Nicanor Perlas (0.2%)--got 1% and below.

In the vice-presidential exit poll, Binay received 42.7% of the votes while Sen. Manual "Mar" Roxas II got 37.4%.

Thus, unlike in the exit poll of Social Weather Stations (SWS) where Binay and Roxas were tied at 40%, the ABS-CBN/Pulse Asia exit poll had Binay with 5.3 percentage point lead over Roxas.

Luzon, Mindanao deliver for Binay; Visayas for Roxas

Metro Manila delivered a 20.5-percentage point margin for Binay (Binay: 53.9%; Roxas: 33.4%).

The rest of Luzon delivered an 11.6-percentage margin lead for Binay (Binay: 45.8%; Roxas: 34.2%)

The Visayas region, where the Roxases come from, delivered a whopping 29.3-percentage point margin for the Capiz native (Roxas: 54.7%; Binay: 25.4%).

Mindanao, where the Estrada-Binay team has beaten all other tandems, delivered a 16.6-perdentage point margin for Binay (Binay: 47.3%; Roxas: 30.7%).

Ana Maria Tabunda, chief research fellow of Pulse Asia, told ABS-CBN that their exit poll was unable to complete interviews in Luzon and Visayas where Roxas could get more votes.

She cautioned that the ABS-CBN-Pulse Asia exit poll completed more interviews in Mindanao, where the Estrada-Binay tandem is strong.

The exit poll had targeted 12,400 interviews. It has a margin of error of plus/minus 1.8% for the vice-presidential exit poll.