Overview
- Voting for an 80-member Bangsamoro parliament began on Monday under heavy security as residents cast ballots to replace the appointed transition authority.
- COMELEC placed Cotabato City under its control after a late-Sunday shooting at a polling site killed three people and wounded 15, and officials said the commission would press charges over violence or vote buying.
- Officials deployed more than 20,000 soldiers and police to guard polling places and quick-response teams were staged after weeks of checkpoints and earlier incidents including an ambushed motorcade.
- Election administrators discovered pre-shaded ballots in 36 of 68 precincts in Maluso, Basilan, ordered immediate reprints and delayed voting there, raising logistical and credibility concerns.
- The vote comes with the MILF fractured into rival parties and about 14,000 former fighters still under arms, a reality that will shape whether the vote delivers real self-rule and reduces the risk of renewed conflict.