No single party gets majority of first-ever elected Bangsamoro Parliament

The BFP, with 31 winning bets, only has a marginal lead over rival UBJP's 30 seats. To secure a 41-seat majority, alliances with other elected parties will be key.

AT A GLANCE

• The Bangsamoro people have opted for a parliament without absolute control by any single party following the historic elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
• The election results revealed a close contest between the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP) and the Bangsamoro Federalist Party (BFP), with neither party achieving a majority, necessitating coalition-building with other parties.
• The newly elected parliament will serve a transition term until June 30, 2031, marking the end of the transition from the previous Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to the BARMM.

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MANILA, Philippines – The Bangsamoro people have decided that no single party will get absolute control over their first-ever elected parliament, following the conclusion of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao’s (BARMM) historic polls.

Before the September 14 elections, two parties were widely seen as leading contenders: the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP) and its rival the Bangsamoro Federalist Party, which is led by the region’s interim chief minister and ex-UBJP secretary general Abdulraof Macacua.

Election results have only shown how tight the race between both parties was. The BFP, with 31 winning bets, only has a marginal lead over rival UBJP’s 30 seats. This means neither party will be able to singlehandedly take control of the Bangsamoro Parliament or ensure the election of their chosen bet for chief minister, the head of the BARMM regional government’s executive branch.

To secure a 41-seat majority, alliances with other elected parties — who hold a total of 19 seats — will be key. These are:

• BARMM Grand Coalition (BGC) with 8 seats
• Serbisyong Inklusibo-Alyansang Progresibo Party (SIAP) with 6 seats
• Progresibong Bangsamoro Party (Pro Bangsamoro) with 1 seat
• Bangsamoro Peoples Democratic Party (Raayat) with 1 seat
• Al-Ittihad-Ungaya sa Kawagib Nu Bangsamoro (Itihad) with 1 seat
• the 2 non-Moro indigenous people representatives (NMIPs) who have no disclosed political party

On proclamation night on Tuesday, September 15, the BFP’s Bangsamoro members of Parliament-elect Macacua and Ishak Mastura talked about the necessity of forming a coalition to form the BARMM’s government of the day.

While Mastura added that tensions between regional political parties “will eventually die down in due time,” the leadership rift between Macacua and the rest of the MILF led by chairman and winning UBJP first nominee Ahod “Al Haj Murad” Ebrahim has been a defining point of friction during the 2026 polls.

A news release by the MILF’s information committee owed it to “a leadership rift years in the making.”

It apparently began when President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. unceremoniously replaced Ebrahim as interim chief minister with then-MILF armed group chief Macacua in March 2025. (READ: MILF central committee frowns on BARMM leadership change) 

Tensions only grew as Macacua began making decisions as chief minister without consulting the MILF. In the end, several of the MILF’s formerly high-ranking members like Akmad “Toks” Brahim, Abunawas “Von Al-Haq” Maslamama, and Tomanda Antok defected from the UBJP to the BFP.

Macacua left the UBJP initially to become an independent candidate. He then became BFP president and chairman just a month before the September 14 elections.

This led to Macacua, Brahim, Maslamama, and Antok being stripped of their positions in the MILF’s Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF), a decision made by the central committee that Ebrahim leads.

Both Macacua and Ebrahim will be in the elected parliament. The dynamics between these winning politicians and their will shape how the first-ever elected Bangsamoro government will lead the region.

The future of BARMM

The newly elected parliament members will serve a special transition term from October 30, 2026 to June 30, 2031 that synchronizes BARMM’s polls with the national and local elections, according to the Comelec. After that, the region’s parliamentary elections will be held every three years. 

The conclusion of the 2026 parliamentary polls marks the end of the transition period from the now-defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to the BARMM. – Rappler.com