The Muslim News

Asia News Network:

Residents of a self-governing Muslim-majority area in the southern Philippines voted for new leaders Monday (Aug 8) in a poll boycotted by former Islamic separatists who had held power for nearly a decade.

Voting started slowly in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and was held under tight security, with the region troubled by a decades-old secessionist rebellion and activity by Islamic militants, officials said.

Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos said in an INS report from Davao City that voting started at about 9am.

More than a million residents are eligible to cast their ballots in the elections held every three years for a new governor, vice governor, and 24 seats in the regional assembly.

The region encompasses the provinces of Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur -- plus the city of Marawi.

It was granted self-rule in a 1996 peace treaty that ended the Moro National Liberation Front's (MNLF) decades-old armed secessionist campaign for the area, and has been ruled by the MNLF since then.

But incumbent governor, MNLF chief Parouk Hussin, withdrew from the ballot last weekend after President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo failed to endorse his candidacy, saying she did not want to take sides.

About 17,000 soldiers and police were deployed to monitor the election, officials said, with fears of attacks by the Abu Sayyaf extremist group that is especially active in Basilan.

The Abu Sayyaf is alleged to have ties with the Al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden and has been blamed for a series of attacks in the Philippines.

In the mainly Christian town of Lamitan on Basilan Island, the turnout was poor in the first 90 minutes of polling but there were no incidents, officials said.

"Only 13 of the 300 registered voters in the precinct have cast their votes," local election official Nilda Reyes told Agence France-Presse at the Lamitan Central Elementary School.

Local television also reported low turnout in the island of Jolo, an MNLF stronghold.

There was no voting in the town of South Upi, Maguindanao province where a number of residents trooped to the municipal hall to prevent the distribution of election paraphernalia.

The protesters are calling for the proclamation of the winners in last year's polls amid allegations that there were tampered ballots.

The frontrunner in the race, Zaldy Ampatuan, voted in his Muslim political clan's stronghold of Shariff Aguak on the main southern island of Mindanao at around 8:15am, bringing a large retinue of heavily armed bodyguards with him.

He expects to win via a landslide, according to an Agence France-Presse report.

Ibrahim Paglas III, another gubernatorial bet, also voted early.

He's hopeful of having a "big chance" of winning the elections. Paglas also expects the political exercise to be peaceful and honest.

The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao is a minnow in the Philippines, contributing just under 0.9 per cent to the country's economic output in 2003, official figures show.

Some 53 per cent of the region's population is considered poor and the area relies mainly on national government subsidies and foreign aid.

This year's elections came amid expectations that the Arroyo government would finally sign a peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), an MNLF splinter faction, which has been observing a two year-old ceasefire with Manila.

Arroyo urged residents of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao on the eve of the elections Sunday (Aug 7) to "freely exercise their right to suffrage" and thus "strengthen autonomy, reject extremism, (and) bring pride to our people."

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