Photo credit: Reuters
Voting began on Monday in the Philippines’ Muslim-majority south under heightened security after three people were killed and 15 wounded in violence on the eve of the historic election.
Reuters reports that the vote is seen as a crucial test of efforts seeking to bring lasting peace and development to a region once torn by separatist conflict and extremism which peaked in the 2017 siege ofMarawi City by Islamic State-linked militants.
The Commission on Election placed Cotabato City under its control after the violence on Sunday, when an argument at a polling station erupted in gunfire, according to local reports.
Election Commission Chairperson George Erwin Garcia condemned the act of violence, but said elections for party-list representatives, district representatives, and sectoral seats across the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) have been generally peaceful so far despite logistical challenges, including reprinting ballots to replace pre-shaded ones that had been intercepted.
Nearly 2.4 million voters are registered for the vote, which international partners and peace monitors view as a key test of whether the regional autonomy granted under a 2014 peace deal between Manila and Muslim separatists can be sustained through elected institutions.
The grant of autonomy was intended to halt a conflict that killed more than 120,000 people, displaced about 2 million, and helped extremist groups gain a foothold in the region.
The election completes a transition set in motion by the agreement between Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the country’s largest Muslim separatist group, and a subsequent law that granted greater political and economic powers to the Muslim-majority south.
