BARMM again asks Congress to reset 2025 regional polls

COTABATO CITY–The interim Bangsamoro parliament has asked the Senate and the House of Representatives to postpone, yet again, the election for members of the regional legislature to give time for the current transition government to “prepare for smooth democratic transition” in 2028.

During its regular session on Tuesday, the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) approved Resolution No. 505 which called on Congress to move the first regional parliamentary elections to 2028 instead of next year, alongside the midterm elections for the rest of the country.

If granted, this would be the second time that the scheduled elections for the 80-member parliament of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) is postponed.

Congress, in 2021, decreed the postponement of the 2022 regional polls, thereby extending the institutional life of the BTA which was created in February 2019 after the Bangsamoro Organic Law was ratified in a plebiscite a month earlier.

Floor leader Sha Elijah Dumama-Alba said the additional transition time would give the interim parliament enough leg room to resolve emerging legal, political and administrative issues.

These include the impact of the Supreme Court decision severing Sulu province from the BARMM, the current challenge before the high court on the constitutionality of the Bangsamoro Electoral Code that would see its first application in 2025 if elections push through, and the still unfinished accreditation of regional political parties.

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BARMM leaders have yet to fully address the impact of the high court ruling that triggered Sulu’s exit from the autonomous region’s administrative jurisdiction. The BARMM had asked the court to allow it to intervene in the case so it can file an appeal.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) had advised the regional parliament to reapportion seven parliamentary district seats originally intended for Sulu. But interim Chief Minister Ahod “Al Haj Murad” Ebrahim had said there was not enough time to do it before the filing for regional candidacies on Nov. 4 to 9.

Barring such measure, the Comelec had already declared that it would push through with the regional polls. This means that only 73 members, instead of 80, will be elected into the BARMM parliament who will take office on June 30, 2025.