BARMM Election Returns Reach 99.29% as of Tuesday Night

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has received 99.29% of the election returns (ERs) from the historic first parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) as of Tuesday night. The Comelec dashboard showed that 5,175 out of 5,212 expected ERs were received by 10:33 p.m. on Tuesday. All 108 certificates of canvass (COCs) from cities and municipalities have been received. However, only one out of six provincial or district COCs remains unreceived. The Bangsamoro region held its first parliamentary election on Monday, with 2.393 million registered voters participating. This election is crucial for determining the members of the 80-seat Bangsamoro Parliament, which comprises 40 party representatives, 32 district representatives, and eight sectoral representatives. Based on partial and unofficial results as of 9:59 p.m., with 99.35% of ERs processed, four registered political parties (RPPPs) are poised to secure 38 of the 40 party-representation seats. BFP and UBJP are each expected to gain an additional seat. Leading candidates for the sectoral seats have also been identified based on the same partial and unofficial results. These include seats for settler communities (2 seats), women (1 seat), youth (1 seat), Ulama (1 seat), and traditional leaders (1 seat). The two representatives for the non-Moro Indigenous Peoples were already selected in August. They are Jo Genna Jover of the Teduray Indigenous Peoples and Leticio Datuwata of the Lambangian Indigenous Peoples. Leading candidates in various parliamentary districts, including Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao Del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Cotabato City, Special Geographic Area (SGA), and Tawi-tawi, were also listed. -NB, GMA News