Voter Wounded in Bangsamoro Parliament Polls Gunfight

COTABATO CITY — An elderly Moro man was wounded in the crossfire between policemen and supporters of a political party who clashed in Shariff Saydona Mustapha town in Maguindanao del Sur on Monday, September 14, as the Bangsamoro parliamentary polls were being held in the municipality. Reports from the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region and the Maguindanao del Sur Provincial Police Office stated the personnel of the Shariff Saydona Mustapha Municipal Police Station first apprehended a man who was allegedly roaming suspiciously near the campus of Nabundas Elementary School in Nabundas, Shariff Saydona Mustapha. The policemen were then attacked by heavily armed supporters of a party with candidates for the Bangsamoro regional parliament. A voter was reportedly hit by a stray bullet and was immediately brought to a hospital for treatment. The exchange of gunfire waned only after the armed partisans fled when they ran out of ammunition, according to local executives and traditional Moro datis in Shariff Saydona Mustapha, one of the 24 towns in Maguindanao del Sur, a component province of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. The incident triggered panic in the vicinity of the campus, which gunmen reportedly strafed with assault rifles, prompting policemen guarding polling sites inside to return fire and forcing the gunmen to flee.