MANILA (MindaNews / 14 December) – There is still a need to conduct a massive voter’s education in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in order to avoid wasting votes due to technicalities, a Member of Parliament (MP) said.
MP Tarhata Maglangit pushed for an intensified education and information campaign to help keep the integrity of the Bangsamoro parliamentary elections “with everyone’s votes all counted in.”
“In my conversations with community members, there are those who said they will vote for me. I told them ‘no,’ that’s wrong, you vote for my political party,” she told MindaNews.
Maglangit is the first nominee of the Mahardika Party, the political party of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) under founding chair Nur Misuari.
It will be a waste of votes if they don’t know how to vote, that’s why there is really a need to further educate them with regards to the Bangsamoro Parliament elections, she said.
There are moves in Congress to reset the May 12, 2025 Bangsamoro parliamentary elections to May 11, 2026. If the measure won’t be approved, the May 12, 2025 Bangsamoro parliamentary elections would be held simultaneously with the national midterm and local elections.
She noted that ensuring that all votes are counted would make the Bangsamoro elections truly “representative of the people’s democratic choice.” The parliament member just attended the Democracy Action Partnership in Indonesia, which was organized by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy on December 9 to 10.
Maglangit said that during the election campaign period, her political party will make voter’s education, especially the voting of parliament members, a major component.
Under the Bangsamoro Electoral Code, which was approved on March 8 last year, the 80-member parliament shall be composed of 50 percent party representatives (40 seats), 40 percent district representatives (32 seats) and 10 percent sectoral representatives (eight seats).
But in September, the Supreme Court ruled that Sulu is not part of BARMM. Sulu had been allocated with seven districts.
Of the eight sectoral representatives, two seats each are for non-Moro indigenous peoples and settler communities, and one each for women, youth, traditional leaders and ulama.
Maglangit lamented that the present sectoral representation “does not reflect the true representation of the various stakeholders in the Bangsamoro region.”
The underprivileged sectors such as farmers and fisherfolk, and also civil society organizations, must also be given reserved seats in the parliament for it to be more inclusive, she said.
For political parties, they need to receive at least four percent of the total party system votes to get a seat in the parliament. As of October 31, the Commission of Elections said the BARMM had a voting population of 2,368,404 (1,198,797 males and 1,169,607 females). A political party hence needs to receive around 95,000 votes to get one of the 40 parliamentary party system slots.
The Chief Minister of the parliament will not be directly voted by the electorate, but will be chosen by members of the parliament among themselves.
To reach the four percent threshold, Maglangit said that Mahardika would “wake up their comrades who have been sleeping,” organize their communities and supporters, and engage in a massive education awareness campaign. (Bong S. Sarmiento / MindaNews)
