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Philippine peace deal at risk as Muslims vote

Posted on: Monday, 8 August 2005, 00:52 CDT

By Manny Mogato

SHARIF AGUAK, Philippines (Reuters) - More than one million people began casting votes on Monday in an autonomous Muslim region of the southern Philippines in elections that risk undermining a nine-year-old peace deal with Islamic rebels.

Several leaders of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) are boycotting the polls, angry that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is perceived to be supporting traditional clans as she repays debts from last year's national elections.

The elections for a governor, vice governor and two dozen members of the regional assembly are also seen as a key test of the government's ability to hold credible polls amid allegations of vote fraud that have shaken Arroyo's presidency.

But few expect much change in an area where elections have long been settled by money, political machinery and strong-arm tactics. Voters, and some candidates, are bought or threatened into supporting deeply entrenched clans.

"I am not that eager to vote," said Sandra Moner, a mother of five tending a store close to a near-empty voting center in central Maguindanao province. "There have been dozens of elections here but it's the same people I see."

More than 8,000 polling precincts opened at 7 a.m. (2300 GMT on Sunday) across the five provinces that make up the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), set up 16 years ago to give Muslims greater self-rule in the mostly Roman Catholic country.

Officials said they expected a relatively high turnout, helped by the presence of some 12,000 soldiers and police guarding polling stations and potential "hotspots."

Results are expected to be announced on Wednesday.

"The situation is generally peaceful," Ricardo de Leon, deputy chief of the national police, told Reuters.

The region is rich in rice, corn and fish but its development has suffered from corruption and a three-decade insurgency, which has been continued by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) since the 1996 deal between the government and the MNLF.

PEACE DEAL QUESTIONED

Zhaldy Datu Puti Ampatuan, the son of a powerful provincial governor, is heavily favored to win the governorship of ARMM ahead of Mahid Mutilan, an Egyptian-trained Muslim cleric, and Ibrahim Paglas, a development-oriented former mayor.

"The past two ARMM governments failed to deliver. Our region remained poor and unstable," Ampatuan told reporters after casting his vote. "That will soon change, that we promise."

Arroyo's office said in a statement on Monday she had not endorsed any candidate, but several MNLF leaders withdrew from the election because of her perceived backing for Ampatuan, who is running on the ruling coalition's ticket.

Many people still find it difficult to believe that Arroyo's rivals for president in last year's national elections got zero votes in four of five towns in one ARMM area controlled by Ampatuan's father.

Suspicions about the results of the 2004 polls in four ARMM provinces -- Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi-tawi -- were raised after audio recordings surfaced in June suggesting that vote-counting in the areas was slanted in favor of Arroyo.

All ARMM governors since the 1996 peace deal have been members of the MNLF.

Ambu Amri Taddick, the MNLF's deputy secretary general for military affairs, was quoted in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Monday as saying the consensus within the group was to reject the 1996 deal and resume the armed rebellion.

"The government knows that we believe in the peace agreement, but it has ignored us," he said.

Other MNLF leaders have said they would not reject the deal, but would complain to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, which helped broker the agreement.

The collapse of the 1996 deal would be a major blow to efforts to end decades of conflict in the Philippine south that have scared off investment and left millions stuck in poverty.

Source: REUTERS

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