Leaders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will vote for the first time in the May 13, 2019 elections.
MILF chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, together with another group leader, registered as a legitimate voter at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Camp Darapanan, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao.
Sammy Almanzor, also known as Sammy Gambar, MILF’s vice chair for military affairs, also registered a day earlier.
“I feel very happy now that I could now participate in the country’s political exercises, particularly in the Bangsamoro plebiscite early next year,” Gambar said.
The Comelec kicked off a three–day (Sept. 11-13) special satellite registration in Mindanao in preparation for the plebiscite for the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) slated in January next year.
According to Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez, almost 400 new voters registered on Tuesday and some 500 are expected on Wednesday.
BOL provides for the establishment of an expanded political entity known as the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), which would include all the areas under the current ARMM – the cities of Marawi and Lamitan, and provinces of Maguindanao, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Basilan, and Lanao del Sur, and 39 barangays in North Cotabato, six municipalities in Lanao del Norte, and the cities of Cotabato, and Isabela in Basilan.
(Photo from PNA.gov.ph)
