ISTANBUL

Interim administration officials in Bangsamoro Friday filed nominations to participate in the first elections scheduled to be held next year in the autonomous region in southern Philippines.

Chief Minister Haji Murad Ebrahim himself led a delegation of the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP) and filed relevant documents with the Commission on Elections in the capital Cotabato City, an official statement said.

The delayed elections, originally scheduled for 2022, are set for May 11 next year but the lawmakers in the Philippines Congress have proposed to reschedule the elections to 2026.

Ebrahim said the filing of the nomination for parliamentary seats “marks a transformative change in the Bangsamoro from bullets to ballots and from armed struggle to electoral struggle.”

The UBJP has made nominations for 40 seats.

In January 2019, a referendum approved the "Bangsamoro Organic Law," officially establishing the "Bangsamoro Transition Authority" in the region, after decades of resistance movement waged by the Ebrahim-led Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Ebrahim was appointed and sworn in by then-Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte as the interim chief minister of the newly formed Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in February 2019.

Ebrahim said his party is aware of a bill in the Philippine parliament that seeks to delay the polls by one year.

However, he added, any move should respect the terms of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro and the Bangsamoro Organic Law which “provide that the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) shall lead the Bangsamoro Transition Authority.”

Bangsamoro is home to approximately 5 million people, with the majority being Muslims.