Gunfire has erupted outside a polling station in a semi-autonomous Muslim region of the southern Philippines hours before polls opened, leaving three people dead and 15 others wounded as the region votes to elect its first parliament.
The landmark vote represents the culmination of a protracted peace process that began in the late 1990s and established the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in the country's far south.
Cotabato police chief Jibin Bongcayao stated that the shooting occurred shortly before midnight when members of rival political factions jostled for position to cast their ballots first outside a school designated as a polling centre.
Bongcayao noted that the men belonged to rival political parties that emerged from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the group that spent decades waging an armed campaign for regional autonomy in the predominantly Catholic country.
Heightened security
In a region long affected by political violence and clan rivalries between influential families, party leaders recently told visiting AFP journalists that a peaceful vote would itself be regarded as a major success.
Security measures have been intensified across the BARMM in recent days, with more than 20,000 security personnel deployed throughout voting areas alongside quick-reaction teams mobilised to counter potential outbreaks of unrest.
Tensions have remained high leading up to the vote; last month, a motorcade transporting the region's interim chief minister—an appointee of President Ferdinand Marcos—was ambushed and struck by gunfire.
