Mainland BARMM has 78.2% of the region’s 2.4M voters; vote-richest Lanao del Sur has 30% - Mindanews
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 07 September 2026) – The mainland provinces of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) have 78.2% of the region’s 2.4 million voters, with Lanao del Sur as the vote-richest.
The province comprising 39 towns and one city – Marawi – has 727,634 out of 2,393,530 registered voters in the BARMM, according to the records of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) as of May 8, 2026.
The BARMM comprises the provinces of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, the city of Cotabato and the Special Geographic Area (SGA) all in the mainland, and the island provinces of Basilan and Tawi-Tawi.
While Lanao del Sur has 30% of the voters, the combined number of voters in the two Maguindanaos, Cotabato and the SGA is 1,153,456 (48.2%) or nearly half of the total number of registered voters. Altogether, mainland Mindanao has 78.2% of the regional votes.
After Lanao del Sur’s 727,634 voters, the province with the second highest number is Maguindanao del Sur with 469,136 (19.6 %), followed by Maguindanao del Norte with 419,518 (17.5 %), Tawi-Tawi with 264,192 (11%), Basilan, including Lamitan City, with 248,248 (10.4%), Special Geographic Area with 133,674 (5.6 %), and Cotabato City with 131,128 (5.5%).
Voters in the BARMM are to elect 80
Members of Parliament: 40 party representatives, 32 single district
representatives, and eight sectoral representatives.
Of the 32
parliamentary districts, Lanao del Sur, including Marawi City, has the
highest number: nine (28.1%), Maguindanao del Norte has five (15.6%),
Maguindanao del Sur has five (15.6%), Basilan has four (12.5%),
Tawi-Tawi has four (12.5%), Cotabato City has three districts
(9.4%) and SGA has two (6.3%).
Thirteen regional parliamentary political parties (RPPPs) are vying for the Parliament’s 40 seats. Each party, except one, has 40 nominees each.
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 2nd Bangsamoro
Parliament Speakers Bureau Training of Trainers on the Bangsamoro
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 for all.
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.
The 13 political parties are the first
the voter sees on the ballot, with the candidates for district
representatives below. The back side of the ballot contains the names of
the candidates for sectoral representatives.
For the first time
in Philippine electoral history, the ballot features the logos of the
political parties and the photographs of the candidates beside their
names.
From bullets to ballots
September 14, 2026 will also be the first time where all the Moro liberation fronts — Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the MILF — that once used bullets to fight for their right to self-determination, are now using the ballots to determine who will govern the autonomous region by October 30, 2026, the same day the thrice-extended transition period will finally end after seven years and eight months.
The MNLF after the 1996 Final Peace Agreement had participated in the succeeding elections but as individual candidates. Under the BARMM, this is the first time the MNLF and MILF – the liberation fronts that signed peace agreements with the government – are participating in the regional elections through their own political parties.
The MNLF under founding chair Nur Misuari has Mahardika Party, the MNLF under Muslimin Sema has Bangsamoro Party (BaPa), the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) under Ahod “Al Haj Murad” Ebrahim, has its United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP) and some MILF members and supporters set up the Bangsamoro Federalist Party (BFP) now headed by Abdulraof Macacua.
Macacua was appointed in March last year to replace Murad as interim Chief Minister.
All four parties have 40 nominees each for party representatives. UBJP fielded the most number of candidates for the 32 district seats across the BARMM. It fielded 27. BFP fielded 20, BAPA has 11 and Mahardika one. For the six sectoral seats, BFP and UBJP fielded candidates for all six seats.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) through Resolution 11248 has declared the UBJP as the Dominant Majority Regional Parliamentary Political Party and the BFP as the Dominant Minority Regional Parliamentary Political Party.
This means that they shall be entitled, among others, to the electronic transmission of the precinct results upon the closing of the polls and to be served the transmitted election results at Data Center 3; ex officio membership, as non-voting members, in the Provincial, City, and Municipal Boards of Canvassers; and one official watcher in every polling place and canvassing centers; and a printed copy of the election returns from among the first eight copies sealed and distributed under Section 84 of Resolution No. 11237, being part of the first batch of nine copies generated by the ACM prior to transmission under Section 48, specifically the sixth copy for the Dominant Majority RPPP and the seventh for the Dominant Minority RPPP.
Numbers and alliances
Aside from the Moro liberation fronts, the region’s ruling clans have also fielded candidates in the September 14 polls, some of whom have allied with regional parties.
Lanao del Sur Governor Adiong’s political party, Serbisyong Inklusibo, Alyansang Progresibo (SIAP), is part of the BARMM Grand Coalition (BGC), an RPPP.
Adiong’s eldest son, Mamintal Rakiin Adiong III is the BGC’s first nominee and the second nominee is also a relative, Amer Zaakaria Adiong Rakim.
Comelec records show that two other Adiongs are running for district representatives: Abdul Rauf Abedin Adiong of SIAP for the 3rd district, and Tashdi Tai Adiong of SIAP for the 9th district.
Abdul Rauf is the son of Ansaruddin Alonto Adiong, the Governor’s brother, and currently mayor of Ditsaan-Ramain town. Ansaruddin was elected Vice Governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in 2005 and reelected in 2008. He assumed the post of OIC Governor from December 2009 to December 2011, after then ARMM Governor Zaldy Ampatuan was arrested and detained following the November 23, 2009 massacre of 58 persons, 32 of them from the media, Ansaruddin later served as Representative of the 1st congressional district, before he became mayor.
In the May 2025 elections, Mamintal Adiong
Jr. was elected to a sixth term as Governor, a post held by his father,
his mother and himself since 2001. His son, Mohammad Khalid, was
elected to a third term as Vice Governor while his brother Zia Alonto
Adiong, was reelected as 1st district representative, a post held by the Adiongs for eight terms.
According
to Comelec records, SIAP/BGC fielded only eight candidates for the nine
districts of Lanao del Sur. UBJP fielded nine while BaPa, BFP and
Mahardika have none. Before the supposed May 2025 elections in the
BARMM, some members of what is now the BFP were members of the BGC.
Adiong’s party did not field a candidate for the 8th district against Ahmad Amir Alonto Balindong of UBJP and Saipoden Solaiman Torayas. Balindong is the son of the late Speaker Pangalian Balindong.
Governors Tucao Mastura of Maguindanao del Norte, Datu Ali Midtimbang of Maguindanao del Sur and Ysmael “Mang” Sali of Tawi-Tawi, ran under the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP) in the May 2025 polls. The PFP and UBJP established an alliance in 2024 for candidates in Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur. The PFP is now allied with the Bangsamoro Federalist Party (BFP) chaired by Macacua.
Mastura, Midtimbang and Sali took their oath of membership in the Bangsamoro Federalist Party (BFP) on August 16 before Macacua, who filed his candidacy for representative of the 3rd district of Maguindanao del Norte as an Independent but joined the BFP a day earlier and was installed President.
Mastura’s nephew, incumbent Member of Parliament Ishak Mastura (BFP) is running unopposed in the 5th district.
In the May 2025 elections, Mastura became the first elected Governor of Maguindanao del Norte after Maguindanao was divided into del Norte and del Sur. Mastura’s granddaughter-in-law, Sittie Shahara Ibrahim Mastura won a second term as 1st district Representative. Shahara’s husband, Datu Shameen, grandson of the Governor, is mayor of Sultan Kudarat town.
In Maguindanao del Sur, two of four candidates for first district representative are Midtimbangs. Bobby Bondula Midtimbang of Al-Ittihad Ungaya sa Kawagib Nu Bangsamoro (ITIHAD) and Tawakal Buga Midtimbang (UBJP), the Governor’s nephew.
Tawakal has been an MP since September 2022. His father, Datu Midpantao Midtimbang, the brother of incumbent Governor Datu Ali, was an MP from 2019 to 2022. Another relative, Michael E. Midtimbang, has also been an MP since 2022.
Basilan Vice Governor Hadjiman Hataman Saliman, brother of Governor Mujiv Hataman, also joined the BFP that day. He ran in 2025 under PFP.
The Vice Governor’s son, Jimael Salam of BFP is running for 4th district representative while his nephew, Abrar Jainuddin Hataman, also of BFP, is running for 3rd district representative. Abrar Hataman has been an MP since March 2025. (Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)
Comments
Post a Comment