Bangsamoro Election 2026: Philippines’ Muslim Region Votes For First Parliament Amid Violence

Nearly 2.4 million voters in the southern Philippines are casting ballots in the first parliamentary election of the Muslim-majority Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), a crucial step towards self-government after decades of insurgency and violence.

Monday’s vote follows several years of postponements and comes amid fresh violence, with three people killed and 15 injured in a shooting in Cotabato City a day before polling opened.

The 80-member parliament will serve as the region’s legislative body. BARMM was established under a 2014 peace deal between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), with the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) appointed as its interim government in 2019. Al Jazeera reported that Monday’s election marks the first parliamentary vote since the region was established.

Violence disrupts election preparations

Commission on Elections chairman George Garcia said on Monday that Cotabato City had been placed under the commission's control following the shooting late on Sunday that killed three people and wounded 15.

Two other incidents were reported in the city. An improvised bomb exploded and injured the person carrying it, while a gun was fired in a separate incident, although no one was hurt.

The election commission also took control of Maluso in Basilan after pre-shaded ballots were discovered in 36 of the town's 68 precincts.

Garcia ordered the immediate reprinting of ballots for the affected precincts, where voting would be delayed, Al Jazeera reported. He also vowed to charge those who attempted 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, marginalization, conflict and sacrifice,” he said in an earlier statement.

Parliament will choose chief minister

Of those seats, 40 are reserved for political party representatives, 32 for district representatives and eight for sectoral representatives.

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

Election officials are aiming for a turnout of at least 80 per cent after the parliamentary vote was postponed for several years, according to Al Jazeera.

Polling stations are scheduled to close at 7pm local time, or 11:00 GMT.

From armed conflict to autonomy

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

BARMM was established following a 2014 peace deal between the Philippine government and the MILF. Under the agreement, the former rebels agreed to demobilise and give up their demand for a separate Muslim state in the southern Philippines, a largely Catholic country.

Since the 1970s, around 150,000 people have died in the fighting. The region was also once a haven for extremist groups, although violence has declined in recent years.