Muslim region in southern Philippines holds first elections

A group attacks a vehicle from an opposing group outside a school used as a polling center during the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao parliamentary elections in Cotabato city [AP Photo]

A predominantly Muslim region in the southern Philippines held its first elections for a regional parliament Monday and Tuesday following years of delays, moving it closer to self-rule after decades of insurgency and violence.

Officials said turnout was over 80%, even as five people were killed in election-related violence in the regional capital and polling was extended to a second day in some precincts over a suspected effort to cheat.

More than 20,000 soldiers and police officers were deployed to provide security for the election.

Voters are choosing the 80 members of a regional parliament, who will in turn elect a chief minister in their first session. The winners are expected to be announced by the end of Tuesday.

Voting extended into Tuesday

Authorities extended voting for a second day in 36 out of 86 precincts in Maluso town on Basilan island after finding pre-filled-out ballots. New ballots for 16,000 affected voters were printed and delivered late Monday and polls will remain open for them until 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

Commission on Elections Chairman Erwin Garcia celebrated the high turnout and said those behind the attempted cheating will be charged with election sabotage.

“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.

Decades of insurgency

The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao was established under a 2014 peace deal, replacing an older autonomous region with a larger, better-funded and more powerful area. The new region has been run by an appointed transitional government made up of former guerrilla leaders since its creation.

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.” TERESA CEROJANO, MANILA, MDT/AP