Mindanao: 109 candidates and eight parties to run in Bangsamoro’s first election
The Commission on Elections presented the lists ahead of next May’s vote. Papers were filed in an atmosphere of peace and free of irregularities. Some 25 seats are at stake, but a postponement is a real possibility after the president of the Philippine Senate and the speaker of the House filed petitions to this end.
Manila (AsiaNews) – About 109 candidates have filed Certificates of Candidacy (COC) and Certificates of Acceptance of Appointments (CAN) for next year’s parliamentary election in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), representing eight political parties, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) reported yesterday.
The necessary paperwork was completed between 6 and 9 November in a substantially peaceful atmosphere, free of irregularities, noted a satisfied Comelec President George Garcia.
According to official records, at least 41 aspiring candidates are running in Lanao del Sur, 15 in Maguindanao del Norte and 15 Maguindanao del Sur, 14 in Basilan, 10 in Tawi-Tawi, nine in Cotabato City and five in the Special Geographical Area (SGA) of Cotabato.
Eight parties have filed the necessary papers and presented their list of candidates, as well as the Manifestation of Intent to Participate in the Parliamentary Elections (MIP-PE).
For Garcia, the number of candidates is satisfactory, despite repeated requests to postpone the electoral round. “The total number of aspirants is quite high considering that only 25 seats in the parliament are to be filled up, and the possibility of postponement and resetting is present," he said.
The Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) recently adopted Resolution no. 641, asking the Philippine Congress to further extend the transition period from 2025 to 2028.
To this end, Philippine Senate President Francis Escudero and House Speaker Martin Romualdez filed bills in their respective chamber to postpone the vote to 11 May 2026.
In February 2019, then-President Rodrigo Duterte entrusted the leadership of the new autonomous region to Al Hajj Murad Ebrahim, leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), who took over as interim chief minister.
Since then, Murad has led the 80-member BTA, which administers the five provinces of the region until the region’s parliament is elected.
The BARMM was born after the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), the product of negotiations between Manila and the MILF.
For the past five years, rebels who fought a bloody war for autonomy starting in the 1970s (with 150,000 dead) have become guarantors of peace and stability in the Muslim-majority territory on the island of Mindanao.
Held on 21 January and 6 February 2019, a referendum approved the agreement setting up the new region, which includes the provinces of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, as well as the cities of Marawi, Lamitan, Cotabato, and 63 villages in North Cotabato.
However, divisions emerged from the start. The decision to have the mostly ethnically Maguindanao MILF lead a three-year political transition did not satisfy other Islamic ethnic groups, like the Tausug, who prefer some form of federal system, and the Maranao.
Christians have also expressed fear, especially in the matter of religious freedom, even if Catholic leaders have lent their support to the autonomy project, calling the BOL, “the last concrete chance for a just and lasting peace in Mindanao”.
One half (40 seats) will be elected representing local political parties through a system of proportional representation, 32 seats are single-member districts, while eight seats are reserved for sectoral representatives. For the BARMM, this will be an historic election since it was created in 2019.
However, just before candidates filed their papers, calls for a postponement of the vote were made, starting with Senate President Escudero, who cited a recent Supreme Court ruling that removed Sulu from the region.
For Escudero, a province and congressional districts need to be created for the towns in the Special Geographic Area (SGA), namely the 63 villages in North Cotabato that voted to join the BARMM. Even the Philippine president said he was in favour of a postponement.
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30/04/2024 19:04
