Muslim-majority Philippine region votes for first parliament under autonomy deal

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - MANILA — Voting is under way in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in the southern Philippines in the first parliamentary elections since the region was established in 2019.

Polls opened at 7 a.m. local time (2300GMT Sunday) and will run through 7 p.m. (1100GMT Monday), the state-run Philippine News Agency reported.

There are 80 seats up for grabs in the elections that will determine members of Bangsamoro parliament, the region’s legislative body. These include 40 political party representatives, 32 district representatives and eight sectoral representatives.

Some 700 candidates from 13 regional political parties are vying for seats in the parliament.

Initial results are expected later in the evening local time.

Monday’s historic vote is seen as a crucial step towards self-governance after decades of rebellion and violence in the Muslim-majority region, where more than 2.3 million people are eligible to vote.

The region’s chief minister, who heads the executive branch, will be elected by parliament in its first session.

Election officials said they were targeting a turnout of at least 80 percent after polling was postponed for several years.

However, deadly violence marred the elections one day before the polls opened.

The chairman of the Commission on Elections, George Garcia, reported on Monday that Cotabato City had been put under the commission’s control after a shooting late on Sunday killed three people and injured 15. In separate incidents in the city, he said a blast from an improvised bomb injured the person carrying the explosive, and a gun was fired but no one was hurt.

The town of Maluso in Basilan was also put under the commission’s control after pre-shaded ballots were found in 36 out of 68 precincts. Garcia said he ordered the immediate reprinting of ballots for the affected precincts where voting would be delayed.

Garcia pledged to charge those who attempt to sow violence or buy votes.

“These elections stand on generations of Bangsamoro struggle for homeland, identity, and self-determination, in the face of dispossession, marginalisation, conflict and sacrifice,” he said in an earlier statement.

“Elections in this part of the Philippines have been marred by violence for as long as I can remember. This is a region where guns are rampant and clan wars are fairly common,” said Al Jazeera’s Lo.

“And so, despite a gun ban that’s been in effect for weeks, and despite very heavy police and military presence, we’ve seen a number of violent incidents.”

Polling stations are due to close at 7pm local time (11:00 GMT).

The election marks the end of the transition period under the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), an interim regional government appointed in 2019.

Established under a 2014 peace deal, the BARMM aims for broader autonomy, with former Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels agreeing to demobilise and giving up their goal of a separate Muslim state in the south of the largely Catholic country.

Since the 1970s, about 150,000 people have died in the conflict. The area was once a haven for hardline groups but has seen a decline in violence.