Bangsamoro votes for its first parliament as a deadly Cotabato City shootout puts the city under Comelec control
Voters in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the Muslim-majority autonomous region of the southern Philippines, began electing their first parliament on 14 September, hours after a shootout outside a Cotabato City polling station killed three people and wounded at least six. The Commission on Elections, Comelec, placed Cotabato City and Maluso in Basilan under its direct control. Some 2.4 million voters are choosing 80 seats in a vote postponed four times since 2022 that caps a peace process begun in the late 1990s.
Geopolitics··Midday
Three dead outside a Cotabato City polling station before midnight
Cotabato police chief Jibin Bongcayao said the shooting broke out just before midnight when supporters of two rival parties, both descended from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which fought for decades for regional autonomy, jostled over who would vote first. The city police counted six wounded, while AFP reported at least three dead and 15 wounded. A man also died after an explosion near another polling station, and police are still investigating. Last month the motorcade of the region's interim chief minister was ambushed, and party leaders had told AFP that a peaceful election would count as a success.[1], [2]
Comelec puts Cotabato City and Maluso under its direct control
The Commission on Elections, the Philippine poll body known as Comelec, later placed Cotabato City and the town of Maluso in Basilan under Comelec control, which gives it direct authority over local officials, government employees and law enforcement to address security threats and protect the integrity of the vote. Authorities also reported gunfire, an explosion and alleged pre-shaded ballots in Basilan. More than 20,000 security personnel were deployed across the region, and the election watchdog Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE) reported power cuts at voting centres in Basilan and Lanao del Sur and observers barred from centres in Cotabato City.[2], [1]
80 seats for a region created after the 2019 plebiscite
Some 2.4 million voters are choosing the 80 members of the first regular Bangsamoro Parliament: 40 from party lists, 32 from districts and eight sectoral seats. The region was created in 2019 after a plebiscite approved the Bangsamoro Organic Law, with the MILF's Murad Ebrahim as its first interim chief minister, and the election has been postponed four times since 2022. The vote caps a peace process that began in the late 1990s and established BARMM after decades of conflict.[1], [2]
