The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region voted Monday for its first elected parliament. [1] Al Jazeera filed the poll as the end of an appointed transition after the 2014 peace deal and the 2019 creation of BARMM. [1] A first election is not a canvassed majority. It is not a Chief Minister. The 80-seat house still has to sit.
Manila Times filed pre-election and election-day violence in Cotabato City, the regional capital, with four dead and fourteen injured in one count. [2] Sunday this paper printed gunfire outside a Cotabato polling school. Monday the violence is the shadow on the vote, not the vote itself. Print both. Do not let the body count cancel the precincts.
Thirteen parties were on the ballot, led in the campaign copy by the United Bangsamoro Justice Party and the Bangsamoro Federalist Party. [1] A campaign lead is not a seat total. Comelec's machines and a 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. window are the mechanics. [1] Mechanics are not results. This edition will not spend Tuesday's partial unofficial counts. Monday owns the fact of the vote.
Republic Act 12317 set the date after four postponements. [1] A law that finally holds is a date, not a peace implemented. Clan politics, Sulu's exclusion fights, and the sectoral seats remain the furniture around the ballot. Print the first parliament election. Leave a proclaimed house to the edition that owns a proclamation.
-- DAVID CHEN, Beijing