BARMM lawmakers urged to amend election code to prevent unfilled seats

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Monday urged the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) parliament to amend their election code to prevent the possibility of  unfilled seats in the BARMM government.

Comelec Chairman George Garcia was referring to the None of the Above (NOTA) provision in the BARMM election code wherein in case the NOTA or abstain vote prevails, the second placer will be proclaimed winner.

Garcia said the proclamation of the second place winner is already unconstitutional as provided by the Supreme Court decision Datu Pax Ali Mangudadatu v. Comelec (G.R. Nos. 260219 & 260231) in June 2025, wherein the High Court said that second placers cannot replace disqualified bets in local races.

The BARMM polls, the first since the region was established in 2019, will take place on October 13.

“We conducted a dialogue with all the seven political parties, with the members of the Parliament, and other citizens' arm and interest groups in Cotabato City. And the parliament members said they were not aware of this NOTA provision. It was included, inserted therein without any debates or discussion,” Garcia said in response to the questions fielded by ML party-list Representative Leila de Lima—a veteran election lawyer like Garcia—during the deliberations on Comelec's proposed P11.5-billion budget for 2026. 

“What is the likely scenario here, which we do not want to happen, is that the Comelec will be compelled to legislate. We will have to interpret the NOTA and that may be considered as an undue delegation of legislative authority. So, we will be giving the [BARMM] Parliament, without pressuring the Parliament, the entire month of September to be able perhaps to amend the provision of the Election Code,” Garcia added. 

Otherwise, he said, Comelec will issue a Resolution on the proper interpretation of the NOTA by “first week of October sans any debate, any extrinsic aid to help the Commission.”

“Meron po ‘yung explanatory note iyong sponsor [The sponsor has an explanatory note]: if the NOTA will get more than 50% of the votes, there will be a failure of election. But the question is, how do we conduct the election? Will we conduct the election only for candidates at the time of the election or are we going to open [the field] again?” Garcia said.

Aside from the Supreme Court decision, Garcia said that the BARMM Election Code does not specify if the second placer in the race covers political parties, since it is the political parties, not individuals, that are elected into the BARMM Parliament just like in the party-list system.

“BARMM’s election code on second placers does not specify if it covers political parties. It was a general statement. How do we deal with it when in BARMM, the political party which is able to get 4% of the valid votes cast will get 40 out of the 80 seats. If two political parties breach the 4%, the 40 seats will be divided among them,” he said.

“If NOTA breaches 50% and one political party breaches 4%, are we going to give the entire 40 seats to the political party with the 4% or will it be proportional representation wherein we give the political party two seats and the 38 seats goes to the none of the above?” he added.

Further, Garcia said that such problems could also arise in a district representative race.

“We really have a problem because if a NOTA wins in the district representative contest, who do we proclaim as the winner then?” he said. — BM, GMA Integrated News