Peace advocates in Mindanao are opposing the proposal to postpone the forthcoming 7th elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Since its creation in 1990, the regular regional balloting has been postponed eight times.
There are groups pushing for the deferment of the ARMM’s supposed seventh regional polls to give the legislature ample time to amend its charter, R.A.9054, for its governing mechanism to have more powers and fiscal capabilities based on the outcome of the tripartite review by Malacanang, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), and the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) of the Sept. 2, 1996 government-MNLF final peace pact.
During a round table discussion at the Notre Dame University here spearheaded by the Institute for Autonomy and Governance (IAG) and Konrad Adenauer foundation, many peace advocates believed that postponement of the August 2011 ARMM elections would project that the government is not capable of administering a peaceful and orderly elections.
Peace advocate Fr. Eliseo Mercado, director of IAG, said deferring the election may create an impression that ARMM is weak that it cannot even administer a regional poll.
“It’s the legitimacy of the electoral exercise in ARMM that we want to uphold so let us not postpone it,†Mercado said.
In a random interview, 18 of 23 officials of various peace advocacy outfits, some of them involved in foreign-funded projects complementing the Southern peace process, said they are against the postponement of the elections.
The current leadership of the ARMM is pushing for the postponement of the August polls to synchronize with the 2013 national and local polls.
Lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, ARMM executive secretary, said postponing the ARMM’s August elections will also give the region’s cross-section a respite from the deep-seated animosities among powerful clans that pitted candidates during last May’s local elections and, subsequently, in the October barangay polls.
By doing so, Sinarimbo said both houses of Congress would also have ample time to amend the ARMM charter and include into it the recommendations of the government, the MNLF and the OIC in the implementation of the 1996 peace accord.
The OIC, an association of 50 Muslim states, including wealthy petroleum-exporting states in the Middle East and Africa, helped broker the government-MNLF peace pact.
Some sectors also favor the postponement because it will pave the way for the completion of the ongoing GRP-Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace process.
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