3 killed, 15 wounded in gunfire ahead of historic Philippine regional election

Three people were killed and 15 others wounded as gunfire erupted hours before the polls opened on Monday in a semi-autonomous Muslim region of the Philippines set to choose its first elected parliament.

The vote is the culmination of an on-off peace process that began in the late 1990s and established the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in the country’s far south.

Cotabato police chief Jibin Bongcayao said the shooting took place just before midnight as members of rival political factions jostled for the right to cast their votes first.

“It started as a struggle for position in the queue between two groups,” Bongcayao said of the shooting outside a school being used as a polling station in the regional capital. “It led to shoving, escalated into a fist-fight, and eventually gunfire broke out in a crowded area.”

Bongcayao added that the men had belonged to rival parties that had emerged from the group that spent decades fighting for regional autonomy in the predominantly Catholic country, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.