LEGAL REMEDY. North Cotabato provincial board member Dulia Sultan shows the documents she submitted before the Supreme Court in Manila on Monday (Jan. 10, 2022) seeking to stop a Commission on Elections ruling barring 200,000 registered voters from the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Special Geographic Area (SGA-BARMM) in North Cotabato from voting for local officials. Under, Comelec Minute Resolution Number 21-0953, SGA-BARMM voters are not allowed to vote for mayor, vice-mayor, town councilors, governor, vice governor, board members, and House representative. (Photo from Board Member Sultan FB page) COTABATO CITY - A provincial board member in North Cotabato has sought a temporary restraining order (TRO) before the Supreme Court (SC) against a Commission on Elections (Comelec) minute resolution barring voters in 63 villages in the province that joined the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) from electing local officials in the May 9, 2022 elections
Minister Naguib Sinarimbo of the Ministry of the Interior and Local Government - Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Photo courtesy of Sinarimbo FB page) COTABATO CITY - The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM has appealed to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to reconsider its ruling barring some 200,000 registered voters from 63 villages in its Special Geographic Area (SGA) in North Cotabato from exercising their right to vote for local posts in the May 9, 2022 national polls. "We respectfully disagree with the new resolution of the Commission as it disenfranchises the over 200,000 constituents of the 63 barangays under the SGA in North Cotabato," said Naguib Sinarimbo, BARMM's interior minister, in a statement released Wednesday. "This (Comelec) resolution deprives them of their right to suffrage and equal protection of the law," Sinarimbo, a lawyer, said. He said while the 63 barangays from North Cotabato have become part o