Southern Philippines’ Muslim Region Holds First Parliamentary Elections

MANILA – A largely Muslim region in the southern Philippines held its first election for a regional parliament on Monday and Tuesday, a landmark step toward self-governance after decades marked by insurgency and violence.

Officials reported turnout exceeding 80%, despite election-related violence that killed five people in the regional capital. Voting was also extended into a second day in some precincts following a suspected cheating attempt.

More than 20,000 soldiers and police officers were deployed to secure the vote.

Voters are selecting all 80 members of the regional parliament. Lawmakers will elect a chief minister when they convene for their first session, with results expected by the end of Tuesday.

Voting extended into Tuesday over suspected cheating attempt

Authorities ordered a second day of voting in 36 of 86 precincts in Maluso town on Basilan island after discovering pre-filled ballots. Replacement ballots for the 16,000 affected voters were printed and delivered late Monday, and polling for those voters was set to continue until 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Commission on Elections Chairman Erwin Garcia welcomed the strong turnout and said those responsible for the alleged cheating attempt would face election sabotage charges.

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

Mindanao is recovering from decades of insurgency

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The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao was created under a 2014 peace agreement. It replaced an earlier autonomous region with a territory that is larger, better funded and granted greater authority. Since its establishment, the new region has been governed by an appointed transitional administration composed of former guerrilla leaders.

The largest Muslim rebel group — the Moro Islamic Liberation Front — gave up its pursuit of independence from the largely Roman Catholic country in exchange for broader autonomy and the group’s 40,000 fighters promised to demobilize and join civilian life.

The region covers five provinces, plus three cities and 63 additional villages, and is home to nearly 2.4 million voters.

Since the 1970s, about 150,000 combatants and civilians have died in the southern Philippines, while development was stunted in the country’s poorest region. With bombing attacks and kidnappings, Mindanao was viewed as a haven for al-Qaida and the Islamic State group until a U.S.-backed Philippine offensive weakened the militants.

In May 2017, IS-linked militants laid siege to the city of Marawi, triggering five months of ground assaults and airstrikes that left more than 1,100 people, mostly militants, dead and destroyed the mosque-studded city’s commercial and residential districts.

“Whoever wins, hopefully we will see change,” said Sittie Ashuya L. H. Omar, a 22-year-old voter from the city of Marawi. “Hopefully they can implement their promises.”