CEBU, Philippines – Cotabato City, the seat of the Bangsamoro regional government, is seeing a competitive race among seasoned public officials, educators and other candidates, some of whom have ties to local political dynasties ahead of the seven-year-old region’s first parliamentary elections on September 14.
The regional center of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) has 140,738 registered voters across its three parliamentary districts, based on the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) official count in July.
Cotabato’s 2nd parliamentary district logged the highest number of registered voters at 53,542 people while the 1st and 3rd districts have 44,305 and 33,224 registered voters, respectively.
Three parliamentary seats are up for grabs in the city, whose local government until recently was led by a mayor, Mohammad Ali “Bruce” Matabalao, who supported the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP), the political party of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
However, internal rifts in the MILF and the resignation of Matabalao from the UBJP have brought much speculation as to how well the MILF’s party is going to fare in Cotabato City’s 37 barangays.
