Comelec conducts mock BARMM elections in Maguindanao del Norte

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June 27, 2026 | 4:36pm

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Poll officials facilitated on Saturday, June 27, a simulated voting activity in Barangay Rebuken in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao del Norte as part of the preparations for the September 14 parliamentary polls in the Bangsamoro region.

The mock electoral exercise at the Rebuken Elementary School in Barangay Rebuken, Sultan Kudarat, only about 10 kilometers north of Cotabato City, was led by Chairman George Erwin Garcia of the Commission on Elections and his subordinate-election director for the Bangsamoro region, Ray Sumalipao.

Representatives from the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, officials of different peace-advocacy groups and a member of the 80-seat Bangsamoro parliament, Romeo Sema, observed the activity, along with reporters from Cotabato City and nearby provinces.

Garcia said the activity went well as planned and that he appreciates the support of various sectors that helped the Comelec push it forward.

The activity was capped off with a simulated vote casting by participants and actual processing of the ballots using a validation machine, done in the presence of observers, among them representatives from various parties that the Comelec had authorized to pit candidates for the 80-member parliament in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

“The simulated voting exercise went on smoothly,” Garcia told reporters after the activity.

Garcia had also pointed out that, as far as the Comelec is concerned, BARMM’s first-ever September 14 parliamentary elections shall push through as scheduled.

Garcia was accompanied to the venue of the mock poll activity by his subordinate-commissioner, Maria Norina Tangaro-Casingal and Arwin Serrano of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting and officials of cause-oriented blocs in BARMM actively supporting Comelec’s effort to ensure peaceful and credible September 14 elections in the autonomous region.