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Philstar.com
January 28, 2026 | 4:45pm
The BARMM administration building in Cotabato City.
PNA / Photo courtesy of Bangsamoro Information Office-BARMM
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections has deferred the Bangsamoro parliamentary elections scheduled for March 30.
Comelec issued a resolution for the postponement on Wednesday, January 28, marking the fourth postponement of the polls meant to elect representatives to the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao parliament.
"Legally and operationally, hindi na po kayang maisagawa ang BPE sa March 30 (we cannot hold the elections in March 30)," Comelec Chairperson George Garcia said in an interview.
The postponement, according to the poll body, stems from legal obstacles that made it impossible to hold the polls on time. The Bangsamoro Parliament passed Parliament Bill No. 415 on January 13, just over two months before the scheduled election — too late to comply with a legal ban on altering election precincts within 120 days of polling day.
Garcia said the commission also cannot proceed without Congress setting a new election date, pointing to pending Supreme Court cases Ali Jr. v. BTA and Comelec and Macapaar v. BTA and Comelec require legislative action before sectoral representatives can be elected.
The resolution set aside all activities under previous Comelec resolutions connected to the March 30 polls.
Years of delays
The March 30 polls would have been the fourth scheduled date for the BARMM's first parliamentary elections.
The elections were originally set for May 2022 but postponed to May 2025 after the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted work on the region's electoral code.
The Supreme Court excluded Sulu province from BARMM in 2024, ruling its inclusion unconstitutional. Congress reset the polls to October 2025.
Last year, the Supreme Court voided BARMM's redistricting laws, forcing lawmakers to draft new legislation. The court ordered elections be held no later than March 31, 2026, but the Bangsamoro Parliament did not pass the new redistricting law until mid-January.
These repeated delays have kept the region under transitional rule for nearly seven years since BARMM's creation in 2019.
