FROM THE FRINGES: The BARMM Parliamentary Elections

FROM THE FRINGES: The BARMM Parliamentary Elections

By Jerome Aning | September 11, 2026

On Monday, Sept. 14, more 2.39 million voters from the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) will cast their ballots to elect members of the Bangsamoro Parliament. The 2026 BARMM Parliamentary Elections (BPE) gives the people of BARMM the opportunity to choose representatives who will lead and govern them.  The BARMM interim government, on its website, said the coming elections is “a milestone seen as the culmination of decades of peace efforts and a significant step toward meaningful autonomy.”

BARMM Interim Chief Minister Abdulraof Macacua expressed his hope that the elections “would reflect the free will of the Bangsamoro people and strengthen the gains of the peace process.”  He called on BARMM voters to cast their ballots with “conscience and responsibility, saying, “The vote is sacred. It is an amanah, a trust entrusted to every voter.”

Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Chairman George Garcia, in a reflection posted on agency’s website, referred to the Bangsamoro people’s struggle for a homeland, identify, and self-determination through the peace process. He said: “The election before us carries that history forward: institutions borne of struggle, negotiation and transition will now pass into the hands of representatives entrusted with the people’s mandate through the ballot.”

Garcia earlier said the COMELEC is 100-percent ready of the exercise. He appealed for the cooperation of all in ensuring that the elections are free, orderly, honest, peaceful and credible, adding, “Let every voter cast their ballot freely and without fear, and my every candidate and political party conduct themselves with restraint, respect for the process, and a share commitment to preserving the safety of all.”

The election has been postponed four times.  It was originally to be conducted in May 2022 but reset to May 2025 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the delays in the passage of the Bangsamoro Electoral Code (BEC). The election was again postponed to October 2025 after the Supreme Court ruled that Sulu was not part of BARMM, which necessitated the re-allocation of the district seats for the province. The high court later ruled two redistricting laws unconstitutional, resulting in the postponement of the election to March 2026. To give the interim parliament time to craft a new redistricting law, Congress reset the election to Sept. 14.

The election will be conducted in more than 5,000 clustered precincts in Basilan, Tawi-tawi, Lanao de Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Cotabato City, and the so-called Special Geographic Area (SGA), comprising eight municipalities created from the 63 barangays of North Cotabato that voted to join BARMM in 2019.

The BPE is provided under Republic Act No. 11054 or the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) of 2018, one of the offshoots of the final peace agreement signed by the government of the Philippines (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in 2014.  The BOL, which was ratified in two plebsicites in 2019, created the BARMM, replacing the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao set up following peace negotiations between GPH and MILF’s rival, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). The MILF, like the MNLF, dropped its demand for an independent homeland of the Bangsamoro when it entered into negotiations with the GPH.

The unicameral Bangsamoro Parliament will replace the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), a 40-member body appointed by the President and the MILF that has been functioning as the interim parliament since 2019. The elected parliament will have 80 members, comprising 32 district representatives, 40 party representatives and eight sectoral representatives.

Of the 32 district representatives, Lanao del Sur will elect 9; Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur, 5 each; Basilan and Tawi-tawi, 4 each, Cotabato City, 3; and SGA, 2. The districts were created based on population.  More than 100 candidates are running for district representatives.

On the other hand, the party seats will be filled up proportionally based by participating regional political parties who secure at least 2.5 percent of the valid votes cast for the parties.  All voters may choose one party on the ballot, and a winning party has a set of up to 40 nominees ready to take their seats in parliament.  Under the BEC, 30 percent of a party’s nominees must be women.

Turncoatism and political dynasties are prohibited in parliament, and it is expected that this will reduce too much political maneuverings and concentration of power. Under the BEC, party representatives who change change political parties during their term of office are considered automatically resigned from parliament, while nominees submitted by political parties are required to be not be related to one another within the second degree of consanguinity and affinity.

Voters will also directly elect six sectoral representatives—two for settler communities, and one each for traditional leaders, women, ulama (Islamic scholars), and youth.  Two other sectoral seats reserved for non-Moro indigenous peoples will be filled up by an inter-tribal convention which will chose, by consensus, from nominees submitted by tribal assemblies.

Advocates of federalism and parliamentary system of government will be observing if the BARMM government structure could be replicated on the national level. The BOL adopts a parliamentary government of the Westminster model, which features an executive branch led by members of the legislature who are responsible to the legislature.  In BARMM, the executive function and authority is exercised by a cabinet headed by the chief minister.  He appoints two deputy ministers as well as all cabinet members, a majority of whom must come from parliament. The chief minister shall be elected by a majority vote of all the members of the parliament; he and his government can be ousted by a vote of no-confidence by two-thirds of the members of parliament, in which case the parliament is also dissolved and new elections must take place within 120 days.

The BARMM government has a wali, or ceremonial head of government, who shall be chosen by the parliament from nominees submitted by the Council of Elders, a body chaired by chief minister.  The wali performs ceremonial duties such as opening the session of the parliament, administering the oath of office, dissolving the parliament upon the advice of the chief minister after a vote of no confidence against the government of the day, calling for the election of a new parliament, and attending to public rites.

The BOL enumerates more than 50 powers of the BARMM government. In this way, the BARMM government has an asymmetrical relationship with the national government, which some political scientists describe as “federalism-within-a-unitary-state”.  The BARRM government is more of less similar to the autonomous, decentralized or devolved governments of the states in India, the autonomous communities in Spain, and the constituent countries of the United Kingdom.  In the Asia Pacific area, there are several autonomous or self-governing entities such as Indonesia’s Aceh province, China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, which has a large Muslim minority, and the Northern Mariana Islands under the United States.

Whether or not the BARMM government will succeed in fulfilling its mandate to improve the lives of its constituents depends entirely on the voters choosing capable, responsible and trust-worthy representatives.  Whichever party or candidate wins, the hard work of completing BARMM’s recovery from decades of conflict and displacement brought by separatism, religious extremism, militarism, insurgency, and warlordism must start. Through the 2026 BPE, the power to chart the future of their homeland is now truly in the hands of the Bangsamoro people.

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