The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) has urged the House of Representatives to pass a new law resetting the first parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), originally scheduled for March 30, 2026, citing delays in the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) completing a districting law.
“This afternoon, the House Committee on Electoral Reforms will have a hearing on a number of proposed election laws. I instructed the Comelec representatives, headed by executive director [Teopisto Elnas Jr.] to convey to Congress the importance of possibly passing a [new] law fixing the date of the elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao,” COMELEC Chairman George Erwin Garcia said on Tuesday, December 9.
Garcia emphasized that COMELEC is committed to holding the March 30 elections “at all cost” if the BTA focuses solely on the districting law. He warned that expanding the process to include political party accreditation and other election matters would delay preparations.
“But if this will touch on other matters relative to the BARMM election like the [reopening of] accreditation of political parties and sectoral organizations, which would mean the reopening of filing of petitions [for accreditation], most likely, we can’t do it on March 30 [2026],” he said.
The poll chief noted that such changes would require six more months due to the need for a new source code, international certification, mock elections, and field testing.