Rodrigo Duterte, the former president of the Philippines, looks set to win an election from his prison cell in The Hague.

The populist dubbed “The Punisher” in his home country – was arrested in March on charges of crimes against humanity related to his notorious “war on drugs”, which human rights group allege involved the extrajudicial killings of up to 30,000 people.

Mr Duterte appeared to admit ordering the killings in a speech in 2018, but his spokesman later said that his comments “should not be taken literally”.

But while he awaits trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for allegedly overseeing the brutal anti-narcotics crackdown, he is also favourite to win the mayoral election in Davao – a city that is home to 1.8 million people.