BARMM voters will shade only 8 circles on the ballot: for party, district and 6 sectoral reps - mindanews

BARMM voters will shade only 8 circles on the ballot: for party, district and 6 sectoral reps 
By Carolyn O. Arguillas
| August 9, 2026 - 11:54 pm

COTABATO CITY (MindaNews / 09 August) –  Voters in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) will shade only eight circles on their ballots during the 1^st Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections on September 14.

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The electoral exercise is historical not only because it is the first election in the BARMM  seven years after its establishment, but also because for the first time in Philippine electoral history, the logos of the parties and the photographs of candidates are on the ballot. The ballot measures 8.5 x 22.83 inches.

^{Comelec’s ballot face template for the Sept. 14, 2026 Bangsamoro polls for the municipality of Akbar in Basilan.}

Up for election are 80 Members of Parliament (MPs) but each BARMM voter will shade only eight circles to choose one regional parliamentary political party (RPPP), one district representative, and six sectoral representatives – two for settler communities, one each for women, youth, Ulama and traditional leaders.

Campaigns& Elections

The two other sectoral seats reserved for Non-Moro Indigenous Peoples (NMIPs) – will be chosen through tribal assemblies ahead of the September 14 polls. 

The 45-day campaign period started on July 30 with 631 candidates and nominees vying for 80 seats. 

There are13 RPPPs listed on the ballots with their names and logos appearing first on the front page of the official ballot. The name of Moro Ako Party, whose registration as an RPPP was canceled by the Comelec on August 4 on the grounds of misrepresentation, is still on the ballot. 

^{Political parties with their logos on the ballot for the 1st Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections on September 14, 2026. From the Comelec’s ballot face template.}

Below the RPPPs, are the candidates of district representatives. At the back of the ballot is the listing of sectoral representative candidates. 

Campaigns& Elections

Beside the names of district and sectoral candidates are their respective photographs and party affiliations. 

^{The ballot for the 1st Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections on September 14, 2026 has three parts: first for political parties, below that for candidates for district representatives and at the back, a listing of the sectoral candidates. From the Comelec’s ballot face template}

The nearly 2.4 million BARMM voters are electing 80 Members of Parliament – 40 of them political party representatives, 32 district representatives and eight sectoral representatives.

Politics

The allocation of 40 party seats will be determined through a proportional representation system.

To qualify for seat allocation, a party must obtain at least 2.5% of the total valid votes cast for the RPPPs, in accordance with the revised Bangsamoro Electoral Code. Before the Code was amended, the threshold was at least 4%. 

At the 2^nd Bangsamoro Parliament Speakers Bureau Training of Trainers on the Bangsmaoro Electoral Code held at the Aria Hotel here on August 4, Comelec chair George Erwin Garcia emphasized that the number of seats a party gets will depend on the total valid votes cast for political parties, not the total valid votes cast. 

As example, he said, if there is a voter turnout of one million and only 100,000 voted for RPPPs, the basis for the seat allocation would be 100,000 votes cast for RPPPs and not on the one million. 

On the same day Garcia was here, the Comelec cancelled the registration as RPPP of Moro Ako Party for misrepresentation, among others. 

_{The back portion of the ballot lists candidates for six sectoral representatives: two for settler communities and one each for women, youth, Ulama and traditional leaders. from Comelec’s ballot face template}

BARMM comprises the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur and Tawi-Tawi, and the cities of  Cotabato, Lamitan and Marawi, and the Special Geographic Area (SGA) comprising eight newly-created towns from out of the 63 villages in six towns that were previously under North Cotabato but have been constituted into eight towns.

The autonomous region, a product of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), the peace agreement signed by government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in 2014, has a voting population of 2,393,202.

A total of 494 nominees from the 13 RPPPs are vying for 40 political party seats, 107 candidates are running for the 32 district seats and 30 are running for the six sectoral seats. The two NMIP representatives will be chosen before September 14. 

The Commission on Elections set July 27 to August 9 as the period for NMIP communities to conduct their Tribal Assemblies and August 24 to September 4 as the period for Regional Inter-Tribal Convention to select the two representatives. (Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)

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