How the BARMM vote works

Until now, the date for the first Bangsamoro parliamentary elections remains uncertain. The historic election, yet to take place, will finally see more than two million voters in the region choose their leaders.

How will they vote?

Because this is a parliamentary election, they will vote for a regional political party and one district representative. Voters don’t get to choose the BARMM chief minister. Rather, the elected parliament will pick the chief minister.

The BARMM parliament will have 80 members. Forty seats will go to party representatives (from the regional political parties), 32 seats go to parliamentary district representatives, and eight seats are reserved for sectoral representatives. The parliamentary seats are not to be confused with the district seats reserved for elected members of the House of Representatives in the BARMM.

The distribution of parliamentary seats therefore goes: 50% to regional political parties, 40% to district and 10% to sectoral representatives.

The BARMM political parties need to garner at least 4% of the total votes cast for the party system election before a seat in parliament is secured by them.

They will be ranked highest to lowest based on the votes they obtained. The number of seats a party gets will be based on the proportion of the votes they obtained to the total number of votes for the party system.

If a candidate wishes to run as as an individual, he or she can vie for one of the 32 parliamentary district seats.

Here’s the number of districting seats in the new law:

• Lanao del Sur, including Marawi City: 9 seats
• Maguindanao del Norte: 5 seats
• Maguindanao del Sur: 5 seats
• Basilan: 4 seats
• Tawi-Tawi: 4 seats
• Cotabato City: 3 seats
• Special Geographic Area (SGA): 2 seats

In 2024, Sulu was excluded from the Bangsamoro region by a Supreme Court decision, leaving its seven seats in limbo until a new law in early January distributed those seats to the other BARMM areas. The new measure brought the number of parliamentary district seats back to 32 from 25.

What about sectoral representatives?

In the parliamentary elections, voters will not be choosing sectoral representatives. These candidates will not be in the ballots. Instead, the accredited sectoral organizations will elect their representatives through assemblies they organized.

During the registration of voters for the next elections, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) would include voters’ identification of sectors they are members of. They can be a voter for a maximum of three sectors.

Two seats will be allocated for non-Moro indigenous people and settler communities. One each will be given to women, youth, traditional leaders, and the Ulama.

Who’s leading the region now?

Currently, the Bangsamoro Transition Authority serves as the interim government of BARMM and carries out legislative functions.

Abdulraof Macacua is the second interim chief minister. Macacua succeeded Ahod “Al-Haj Murad” Ebrahim, the chairman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and president of the United Bangsamoro Justice Party.

The interim government will continue to lead the region until successors are elected during the parliamentary elections. The BTA and the interim chief minister are appointed by the Philippine president.

The first set of BTA members were appointed by then-president Rodrigo Duterte in 2019. In 2022, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appointed the second set of BTA members, with 41 members coming from the MILF.

When is the rescheduled first parliamentary polls?

As of now, with the 2026 BARMM districting law in place, the Philippine government has yet to finalize a clear date for the BARMM polls.

When the Supreme Court declared the earlier districting laws unconstitutional, it said the elections should be conducted not later than March 31, 2026.

Comelec Chairman George Garcia noted that the timeline the Supreme Court mandated is no longer feasible, as “there should be no redistricting 120 days before the election.”

“We are now confronted with strong legal and operational issues as to whether the conduct of the first Bangsamoro parliamentary election is still feasible by March 30,” Garcia said. March 30 was the date the Comelec set before the 2026 districting law was passed.

Here’s a timeline of the recent events that led to another delay of the polls:

• February 2024 – The Bangsamoro Transition Authority passes Bangsamoro Autonomy Act 58, creating the parliamentary districts in the region. This includes Sulu.
• September 2024 – The Supreme Court excludes Sulu from BARMM because the province rejected the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law in 2019. Back then, the understanding was the now-defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), which included Sulu, would vote as one. So, despite Sulu’s “no” vote, it was included in the BARMM. The SC eventually ruled against its inclusion.
• August 2025 – The official election period starts August 14. Five days later, the Bangsamoro Transition Authority passes Bangsamoro Autonomy Act 77, which amended the division of district seats, following the exclusion of Sulu from the region.
• September 2025 – The Supreme Court issues a temporary restraining order against the amended redistricting law (BAA 77) which saw the distribution of Sulu seats to other districts. The Comelec stops preparations for the polls. By this time, the poll body had already completed the printing of official ballots.
• October 2025 – The Supreme Court rules that the districting laws, Bangsamoro Autonomy Acts (BAA) 58 and 77, are unconstitutional, inevitably postponing the October 13, 2025 elections.
• December 2025 – The Comelec suspends the filing of certificates of candidacy after the Bangsamoro Transition Authority failed to pass a new districting law within the Supreme Court’s October 30 deadline.
• January 2026 – The BARMM parliament passes a long-delayed districting measure. – Rappler.com