Coalition talks likely after Bangsamoro's first parliamentary election

The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao held its first regular parliamentary election on September 14. Voters chose members of an 80-seat parliament, which will later select the region's chief minister rather than electing the executive directly.

Reuters reported partial unofficial figures from the church-backed election watchdog PPCRV. With 98.56% of the party-list vote counted, the camp aligned with interim chief minister Abdulraof Macacua had 35.2%, the bloc associated with former interim chief Al Haj Murad Ebrahim had 32.4%, and the BARMM Grand Coalition had 20.5%.

No camp appeared able to reach the 41 seats needed for a majority on its own, leaving the third bloc potentially pivotal in coalition negotiations. The figures remain partial and unofficial; seat allocation and the governing arrangement can still change before the election commission completes canvassing and proclamations.

Election officials put turnout at about 80%, with roughly 1.8 million votes cast from 2.39 million registered voters. The election advances the 2014 peace agreement between Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, moving a region shaped by decades of conflict from an appointed transition authority toward an elected autonomous government.