MANILA, Philippines — The United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP) has requested the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to look into incidents in Cotabato City that transpired during the first regular parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
In a letter dated September 15 and shared by the NBI to the media on Thursday, UBJP Secretary General Mohajiri Ali noted that while the first BARMM election is “successful,” “we cannot overlook the lives that were lost and the people who were wounded during the election period.”
“We are deeply saddened that some of our UBJP supporters were among the victims. We hope that these incidents will be properly investigated and that the victims and their families will get the justice they deserve,” Ali said in the letter.
READ: CHR cites violence, vote-buying, other irregularities in BARMM polls
“We hope that the NBI will continue to look into these incidents and help establish the facts surrounding what happened. It is important to us that these cases are not simply set aside now that the elections are over,” the secretary general added.
The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) earlier cited various incidents before and during the BARMM polls.
READ: LIST: Winning party, sectoral representatives in BARMM polls
In Cotabato City, three individuals were reported killed and 15 others were wounded in a shooting incident on the eve of the elections, September 13.
On election day, September 14, violence broke out at the Cotabato City Central Pilot Elementary School voting precinct, where a police officer and four individuals were reportedly injured. /cb
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