BARMM Holds First Parliamentary Election as Violence Mars Eve of Vote
Voting began in the Bangsamoro region under heightened security after three people were killed on the eve of the landmark parliamentary election.
Voting opened on Monday across the Philippines' Muslim-majority south under tightened security, a day after three people were killed and 15 wounded in violence on the eve of the region's landmark parliamentary election.
The Commission on Elections placed Cotabato City under its control following Sunday's bloodshed, when an argument at a polling station escalated into gunfire, local reports said. The poll body said voting was proceeding smoothly across the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) and that it did not anticipate wider unrest, pointing to expanded checkpoints and the rapid deployment of security forces.
The election also hit an early logistical snag after officials found pre-shaded ballots in a Basilan municipality, delaying voting there while replacement ballots were reprinted, a poll body spokesperson said.
Nearly 2.4 million voters are registered to elect BARMM's 80-member parliament — 40 party representatives, 32 district representatives and eight sectoral representatives. The legislature will then choose the region's chief minister. BARMM is the country's only region governed under a parliamentary system.
International partners and peace monitors view the vote as a key test of whether the regional autonomy granted under a 2014 peace deal between Manila and Muslim separatists can be sustained through elected institutions. The autonomy arrangement was intended to end a conflict that killed more than 120,000 people, displaced about 2 million and helped extremist groups gain a foothold in the region.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., in a video message, called the election a milestone in BARMM's journey towards lasting peace, democratic governance and meaningful self-determination, describing it as a "defining moment" for the region and the country, and urged voters to take part.
The vote completes a transition set in motion by the agreement between Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the country's largest Muslim separatist group, and a subsequent law granting greater political and economic powers to the south. That law was ratified in a 2019 plebiscite in which residents overwhelmingly backed greater self-rule, paving the way for BARMM's creation and an interim government tasked with preparing the region for elections.
The Bangsamoro spans parts of Mindanao, the Philippines' second-largest island, and a chain of dozens of small islands to the west once associated with piracy and banditry. Competing for power are parties led by former MILF rebels, rival factions that emerged from the movement after the peace deal, and traditional political clans.
In Basilan, 70-year-old Jessica Abing, who voted for greater self-rule in 2019, planned to cast her ballot again on Monday. She recalled the fear that gripped Lamitan in 2001 when Abu Sayyaf militants stormed the city and took hostages, and pointed to a recently opened Jollibee branch as a sign of confidence in a place once linked to kidnappings and insecurity. "Hopefully, the people the voters truly want will win," she said.