Bangsamoro autonomy vote in southern Philippines proves peaceful, apart from a grenade
- President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration hopes that granting greater autonomy to the region can end a violent, decades-long separatist movement
Fears that the first stage of a landmark referendum on greater autonomy for the Philippines’ restive Muslim-majority south would be derailed by violence on Monday failed to materialise, soothing nerves within the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte as it works to end one of Asia’s longest-running separatist conflicts.
There were sporadic reports of confrontations in urban areas with a mixed Christian and Muslim population such as Cotabato City, where a grenade was thrown into a voting centre as polls opened.
The explosive failed to detonate, however, and officials said soon after polling stations closed at 3pm local time that the vote had been otherwise peaceful.
Some 2.8 million people who live in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, in the Philippines’ far southwest, are being asked whether they accept the formation of a new, expanded region called Bangsamoro (Moro nation) with its own parliament and a guaranteed 5 per cent grant of national internal revenue.
Security and policing would remain in the hands of Duterte’s government in Manila, however.