By Asian Pacific News Service

Its election time across Asia.

Actors are big this year. So are beauty queens, soap starlets, renowned criminals, and ageing film heroes.

The sons and the daughters of the rich are just passé.

In India, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is likely to emerge again as the largest party in the 545-seat Parliament on the back of strong economic growth. Vajpayee, a 79-year old bachelor who seems to defy ageing, is likely to retain his throne atop the party.

Bollywood beauty supporting politicians

Supporting him are a whole slew of Bollywood stars ? some of whom are themselves running for Parliamentary posts.

The biggest star standing side by side with the bow-legged Vajpayee is India's 'Governator', Dharmendra, an aged muscle hero of yesterday's cinema.

In the Phillippines, meanwhile, their own version of Schwarzenegger is making a valiant run for office. Ferdinand Poe, or FPJ as he is known, is also an olden day fim hero who made his name playing tough guys, in his case Robin Hood-style policemen and soldiers.

Today he is making life difficult for incumbent Gloria Arroyo thanks to his huge following among the poor.

But India is where the celebrity and politics is raising the most intrigue.

For example, Dharmendra's second wife and daughter, Hema Malini, and Esha Deol, both actresses, are lending their dad and other candidates a hand by smiling at rallies and telling the masses to keep 'India Shining', the BJP's slogan.

Their help in spreading the political message is welcome in the world's largest democracy with a voting public of 670 million people.

In 13 states and three federal territories from the icy slopes of the Himalayas in the North to the tropical South, tens of millions of people are currently voting, in a process staggered over five stages. There are some six national parties, including the BJP and the secular Congress party, which dominated the first half century of India's independence from Britain, but now is struggling, plus dozens of regional ones and thousands of candidates vying for 543 elected seats in the lower house of the national legislature.

India's 14th general election since independence, and fourth since 1996, is the first to be carried out on electronic voting machines in the hope of ending allegations of fraud.

But poll authorities still rely on elephants, camels, horses and boats as well as planes and helicopters to transport the electronic machines to remote stretches of the country and parties represented themselves with symbols to help illiterate voters.

The BJP's main contender is the founding party of India, the Congress Party.

It is still being led by the Italian widow of Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia, who seems to be holding down the fort until her children Priyanka and Rahul can take over the helm.

In the Philippines, meanwhile, the election is being dominated by two candidates.

One is a US-trained economist and former vice-president who is now defending her post as president after impeaching three years ago the former president, Joseph Estrada, an long-time film actor. The other is a high-school dropout-turned-actor trying to become a first time politician, and, by winning, perhaps do a good turn by pardoning his friend and jailed colleague, Estrada.

For Fernando Poe's supporters, the uneducated actor in question, he is a white knight untainted by grubby politics who can give the Philippines a fresh start. To his critics, he is an uneducated film star who will horrify foreign investors and bring more economic gloom.

Yet his films have made him rich. He shot to fame playing stoic heroes who overcome fearsome odds to fight for the common man.

Playing World War II guerrillas and honest cops who are quick with their fists, "FPJ" defeated hordes of Japanese soldiers, gangsters, corrupt politicians and supernatural monsters in scores of movies. But while former president Estrada had charisma and a sense of humour, Poe, or FPJ as he is known, seems peculiarly introverted for a film star. At rallies, he spends 10 minutes on stage, mumbling a few well-worn phrases before breaking into a brief rendition of a popular song. Sometimes, he does not turn up at all.

FPJ is the despair of his minders, who shrug and laugh with embarrassment at the suggestion of an interview. He often disappears for days without explanation. "He's an actor who has been living in a bubble," says one Filipino journalist. "He has nothing between the ears."

What he does have, though, is influential backers: former politicians, advisers and business figures from the Ferdinand Marcos and Estrada eras. For them, Mr Poe is simply a figurehead, a means to piggyback into power and line their pockets once again. Estrada has reportedly poured millions of dollars into his campaign in the hopes of being pardoned.

FPJ's opponent, the diminutive Gloria Arroyo, is by no means an actor but has all the skills Poe will need to cultivate if he is to survive in office.

In her tenure since the deposing of Joseph Estrada, Arroyo has won the backing of business interests, and overcome numerous obstacles like natural disasters, ongoing terrorism campaigns staged by the Mindanao-based Abu-Sayyaf movement, and even re-buffed a coup attempt, all while overseeing the trial of her former boss, Estrada.

Recently she promised to create 1 million new jobs for Filipinos over her next tenure ? a lofty promise few seem to be taking seriously.