Tuesday, May 7, 2019

MILF party calls for peaceful elections in BARMM

From the Philippine News Agency (May 7, 2019): MILF party calls for peaceful elections in BARMM


CALL FOR PEACEFUL POLLS. Abdulraof Macacua (left), secretary-general of the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP), delivers his message during a stakeholders’ forum for orderly elections held in Cotabato City on Monday (May 6, 2019). Macacua called on party members who are participating in democratic elections for the first time, to work for peaceful elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. (Photo courtesy of UBJP)
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), as an organization, is participating in Philippine democratic elections for the first time and the former biggest Moro rebel group that forged peace with the government wants the balloting in the region to be peaceful and orderly.

The United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP), the political party of the MILF, has rallied its members to help achieve peaceful and orderly elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), saying the world is watching over the course of the May 13 polls.


The Bangsamoro Communication Network (BCN) and the UBJP organized Monday a stakeholders’ forum here on peaceful and orderly elections attended by hundreds of major election stakeholders, according to Abdulraof Macacua, UBJP secretary general.

Macacua said foreign nations are monitoring developments on the new political entity in Mindanao, how it selects leaders and how it administers the electoral process.

“This is our first time to participate in Philippine elections as an organization and we want it to be peaceful to show we are capable of holding peaceful elections in Mindanao,” he said.

In attendance during the forum were Sheikh Abu Huraira Abdurrahman Udasan, the Grand Mufti of the Bangsamoro; Naguib Sinarimbo, BARMM minister of interior and local government; and Ernie Palanan, Maguindanao election supervisor.

Also present were representatives from the police and military.

Macacua urged the electorate to vote to office candidates who have integrity, credibility and good public service records. “The UBJP has issued guidelines to its members how to correctly vote but did not dictate who to elect,” he said.

Sinarimbo, for his part, advised the electorate to reject “politics of money” for it will make the elected officials corrupt. “Dishonest candidates, once elected, will recover all his money used in buying votes through corruption in government,” he said.

Before the MILF signed a peace deal with the government, it repeatedly refused to participate in Philippine elections. The MILF first participated in Philippine political exercises in the plebiscite held last January and February that ratified the Bangsamoro Organic Law, the enabling decree that created the BARMM.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1069074

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