Philippines' Duterte wins Time magazine poll

New York: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte won the 2017 TIME 100 poll after consistently leading the survey.

The poll asked readers who should be included on this year's TIME 100 — an annual list of the world's most influential people.

Duterte received 5% of the total "yes" votes in the poll, which closed on Sunday night.

Since taking office in June, Duterte has waged an aggressive war on drugs that killed more than 8,000 people in the Philippines, according to Reuters.

The controversial anti-drug campaign has inspired growing opposition from human rights groups and some political leaders, including Philippine Vice President Leni Robredo.

Closely following Duterte in the TIME 100 poll were Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Pope Francis, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg — all of whom received 3% of the total "yes" votes.

US Bernie Sanders won the reader poll in 2016 while Russian President Vladimir Putin took the lead in 2015.

The official TIME 100 list, which is selected by TIME's editors, will be announced on April 20.

Forbes in December named Duterte as one of the 74 most powerful people in the world, ranking him at 70th place.

In 2016, CNN also hailed Duterte as “Asia’s big winner” after he topped the channel’s “The Winners and Losers in Asia 2016” list, after winning the Philippine presidency in May.

Duterte was lauded for “subsequently upending, rethinking and reshaping the state of affairs.” The channel pointed out Duterte’s unorthodox style in fighting crime and drugs in his country, and cited the high trust approval ratings in public local opinion surveys.

The Filipino leader was also hailed for putting aside territorial disputes to pursue business deals with China.

The Japan Times in December also said cited Duterte is the ‘big winner’ in Asia. “Duterte ended 2016 seeking to rebalance his nation’s ties, improve the life of the average Filipino and make the Philippines — a one-time economic and trade powerhouse — great again,” the newspaper said.