MANILA, Philippines?More than 17,000 positions ranging from president to town councilors will be contested when the Philippines holds national elections on Monday.

Here are some key facts about the election:

* More than 50 million Filipinos are eligible to vote, including Filipinos working overseas. Officials are expecting a turnout of up to 80 percent.

* There are nine contenders for the presidency and eight running for vice-president. The two positions are elected separately, making it possible for the president-elect and his vice-president to be bitter rivals.

* More than 17,000 other posts are up for grabs: seats in both houses of parliament, provincial governors, mayors, and town councilors.

* An automated count will be used for the first time in the hope of reducing the risk of cheating and speeding up the process, but a last-minute software glitch heightened fears the technology could fail or be manipulated.

* About 80,000 vote-counting machines are being deployed. Election officials acknowledge not all machines may work and replacement software may not reach all precincts on time. This would delay the count but not stop the vote.

* Voting begins at 7:00 a.m. (2300 GMT Sunday) and ends at 6:00 p.m., with first unofficial results for the national posts expected at midnight.

* A power crisis that has led to daily outages lasting seven hours in the country's troubled south could affect the count, though the machines have standby power good for 16 hours.

* A range of armed groups including communist guerrillas, Muslim separatists, Islamist militants, and political warlords have left nearly 100 people dead in the three-month election campaign and could disrupt the voting itself.