Violence, security threats mar otherwise hopeful polls in Cotabato

In Cotabato City, the seat of power in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), chaos threatened to disrupt voting at some precincts as viral security threats spread across the city as polls closed. On Monday night, September 14, unverified warnings of a possible power blackout and reports of weapons being brought into the city circulated widely on social media. Elections Chairman George Garcia sought to allay fears that a blackout could affect the integrity of the election results. "We know that even if there is no electricity, the results will be transmitted to the machines," Garcia told reporters during a briefing with the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police. "The machines are already counting." "Therefore, even if there is an interruption – maybe there will be a loss of electricity – but all the machines will still function," Garcia added. Police Brigadier General Christopher Abecia, director of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), confirmed that they had been receiving information that masked men were trying to enter the city. "But we have border lines and chokepoints blocking them and making them return to our border controls," Abecia said during the same briefing. Election-related violence resulted in at least five people killed. Those injured, according to the police, "are supporters of a certain party." On election morning, commotion and gunfire erupted at Central Pilot Elementary School. Hours later, riots blocked part of Sinsuat Avenue outside Sero Central Elementary School. Despite the disruptions, there are stories of hope and pockets of peace during the first parliamentary elections of the Bangsamoro. Former Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) combatants exercised their right to vote. Former rebel leaders and top contenders in the race, Ahod “Al Haj Murad” Ebrahim and Abdulraof Macacua, voted in their respective precincts. Even as sporadic and unpredictable unrest erupted in parts of the city throughout the day, young voters turned out to cast their ballots. "I know who I will vote for," Mohammad Khalil Baganian, 25, told Rappler, describing the voting process quick and hassle-free in his precinct in Cotabato City. "And the ballots are not hard to understand because there are only few options to choose from," he said. The historic polls will see the election of Bangsamoro’s new parliament, a milestone in the region’s struggle for self-governance and genuine autonomy. – Rappler.com