Bangsamoro Elections: From decades of insurgency to first-ever vote in Philippine Muslim enclave | Explained

At least three people were killed and over a dozen others injured during pre-election violence in Barangay Bagua 2 in Cotabato City shortly before midnight Sunday, hours before the historic Parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), the Philippine news agency reported.The election is historic as nearly 2.4 million voters in the BARMM in the southern Philippines are casting their ballots in the first parliamentary elections since the region was established in 2019.The election follows a long-drawn peace process that began in the late 1990s and culminated in the establishment of BARMM, a predominantly Muslim region, and is seen as a crucial step in the long quest for self-rule after decades of insurgency and violence.Pre-poll violenceCommission on Elections Chairman Erwin Garcia was quoted as saying in the news agency AP that Cotabato City has been put under the commission’s control, with an administrator to be designated after a shooting incident. In other incidents in the city, an improvised bomb blast injured the person carrying the explosive, and a gun was fired, but no one was hurt.The town of Maluso in Basilan has also been put under the commission’s control after pre-shaded ballots were found in 36 out of 68 precincts. Garcia said he immediately ordered the reprinting of ballots for the affected precincts, where voting would be delayed.What is BARMM?The election is assumes significance in Bangsamoro troubled past. It is the outcome of decades of armed conflict and negotiations between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the government of the Philippines.The BARMM was set up under a 2014 peace deal that saw the largest Muslim rebel group give up the goal of a separate Muslim state in the south of the largely Catholic country in exchange for broader autonomy, news agency AP reported.The group’s 40,000 fighters promised to demobilise and join civilian life.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. Western and Asian governments feared the tenacious insurgencies could help foster Islamic extremism in Southeast Asia.View full ImageSecurity forces intensify measures across the province to ensure peaceful parliamentary polls.(pia.gov.ph)With bombing attacks and kidnappings, Mindanao used to be a haven for al-Qaida and the Islamic State group before a US-backed Philippine offensive weakened the militants, the news agency said.The historic electionsMore than 20,000 soldiers and police forces were deployed for elections, while troops carrying long arms patrolled roadsides.There are 80 seats at stake in the elections that will determine members of parliament. The region comprises five provinces, three cities and 63 villages with nearly 2.4 million voters. Election officials said they expected an 80% turnout after polling was postponed for several years.The region's chief minister, who heads the executive branch, will be elected by parliament in its first session.In a news conference Sunday, Garcia said the security situation has been peaceful, but warned those who will attempt to sow violence or buy votes that they will be charged.“The elections stand on generations of Bangsamoro struggle for homeland, identity, and self-determination, in the face of dispossession, marginalisation, conflict and sacrifice,” he said in an earlier statement.Where is BARMM?BARMM is located on Mindanao, the second-largest island in the Philippine Archipelago. It covers the territories inhabited by the Moro people, a native Muslim-majority group.Experts said that for centuries, the Moro enjoyed self-governance in independent states and resisted Spanish colonialism. Following the Philippines’ independence in 1946, the country continued its struggle for self-determination, according to Nadhera Mohammad Qassem, an expert on Muslim minorities in the Philippines who holds a PhD in Political Science from the International Islamic University of Malaysia.View full ImageIn this photo taken on September 9, 2026, army personnel from Task Force Marawi aboard their Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs) patrol past the Grand Mosque in Marawi, Lanao del sur province on the southern island of Mindanao. The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, or BARMM, heads to its first-ever polls on September 14, 2026 -- trading appointed parliamentarians for elected ones in the culmination of an on-off peace process that began in the late 1990s. (Photo by Ted ALJIBE / AFP) / To go with AFP story Philippines-vote-BARMM-politics, ADVANCER by Chad Williams and Ferdinandh Cabrera(AFP)“In 1989, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) was created by Manila to give some devolved rights to the Moro. However, ARMM largely failed to address local grievances and demands due to its weak structural power. It was given limited autonomy in political and fiscal decision-making, but it failed to improve socioeconomic conditions in the region. The MILF continued the armed struggle,” Nadhera wrote in Al Jazeera.What happened in 2012?In 2012, President Benigno Aquino III recognised the ARMM as a “failed experiment”. Under his administration, the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro was signed between the government and the MILF, paving the way for a new political entity.Under President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, the Organic Law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao was promulgated in 2018. This legislation granted the region greater fiscal autonomy, a regional government, a parliament, and a justice system.“Then the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro was concluded to outline the mechanism of transition from ARMM to BARMM and set up the MILF-dominated BTA to lead it. All of this is culminating in the parliamentary election, which will determine the makeup of the region’s first legislative body,” Nadhera wrote.The elections stand on generations of Bangsamoro struggle for homeland, identity, and self-determination.Under these circumstances, the future of the Bangsamoro is riddled with uncertainties as voting gets underway, she wrote.(With AP inputs)