PARANG, MAGUINDANAO DEL NORTE—With barely three weeks more to go, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said it is ready for the conduct of the first parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) on Sept. 14, with 90 percent of its preparations already done.
Comelec Chair George Erwin Garcia, during a command conference at the regional police headquarters here on Wednesday, said the poll body, the police and the military are shifting to high gear to complete preparatory and security measures to ensure a peaceful and orderly conduct of the historic political exercise.
Garcia said they are mostly done with the training for teachers who will run the polling centers, while the distribution of election equipment to provincial hubs is underway.
The Comelec expects all election equipment to reach the provinces, cities and municipalities in the BARMM before the end of August.
Garcia said the poll body has some P3 billion for the conduct of the BARMM elections and expects between 65 percent and 75 percent of about 2.4 million voters to cast their ballots to elect the region’s regular parliament.
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First parliament members
Last Tuesday, a convention of leaders of six non-Moro indigenous peoples (NMIPs) chose two representatives to take their collective voice to the regional parliament.
Under the Bangsamoro Organic Law, NMIPs are entitled to two reserved seats in the 80-member regional legislature—at least one to be filled by a woman—which will be selected through a consensual process that upholds their customary laws and traditions in choosing leaders.
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The process was witnessed by Garcia and other official observers.
During the convention, the delegates unanimously agreed that the Teduray and Lambangian tribes would be first in the rotation as NMIP sectoral representatives.
Teduray Jo Genna Jover was selected as the female nominee and Lambangian Timuay Leticio Datuwata as the male nominee.
“They are the first Members of Parliament chosen via a quiet, customary, traditional and very orderly selection process that I witnessed,” Garcia said in an interview on Wednesday.
The convention delegates also agreed that the next two parliament members, during the 2031 BARMM parliamentary elections, would come from the Erumanen ne Menuvu and Dulangan Manobo tribes and the next two would come from the Blaan and Higaonon tribes to complete the rotation.
On Sept. 14, up for grabs are 32 seats for parliamentary district representatives, 40 seats for party representatives allocated based on the proportion of votes obtained by regional political parties, two seats for settler communities and one seat each for women, youth, traditional leaders and ulama or Islamic religious scholars and leaders.
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