MANILA, Philippines — The Bangsamoro Federalist Party (BFP), United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP), and BARMM Grand Coalition (BGC) are leading the race in the first-ever elections in Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), based on the unofficial parallel count by the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV).
As of 8:02 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 14, BFP already obtained 456,658 votes, while UBJP and BGC have 405,250 votes and 278,043 votes, respectively.
The Bangsamoro Organic Law, signed in 2018, provides for the election of 80 members of the Parliament, composed of 40 party representatives, 32 district representatives, and 8 sectoral representatives.
As the Bangsamoro Transition Authority explained, the parliamentary system is designed to provide voters with different forms of representation, with the people making eight choices on election day: one regional political party, one district representative and six sectoral representatives.
For the regional parliamentary political party, voters will choose a party rather than an individual candidate. The 40 regional party-representative seats will be distributed based on each party’s share of the vote, with the party’s nominees filling the seats it wins.
Out of the 13 regional parliamentary political parties, only the three have so far obtained more than 200,000 votes. The rest have less than 50,000:
- Raayat Democratic Party: 45,693
- Pro Bangsamoro Party: 28,545
- Bapa: 23,857
- Best Party: 18,308
- Moro Ako: 12,370
- Mahardika: 10,427
- Abot: 7,801
- Mushawara: 5,134
- Isama: 2,611
- PBB: 2,087 /das
