TACURONG CITY, Sultan Kudarat — Authorities reported on Wednesday that a candidate for the village council of Pandag, Maguindanao del Sur was killed in an ambush Tuesday afternoon in President Quirino town of this province.

President Quirino Police chief Maj. Davis Dulawan disclosed that pursuit operations are ongoing against two gunmen on a motorbike who carried out the attack.

Police identified the victim as Tayan Mamalinta, who was ambushed by riding-in tandem gunmen around 3 p.m. while driving his motorbike along the national highway of the town. The attackers, who remain unidentified, sped off in the interiors of the town following the incident.

Investigators are also trying to determine if the attack was triggered by a personal grudge or related to next month's Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections.

Mamalinta, head of the United Bangsamoro Justice Party — the political arm of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front — is seeking a seat in the village council of Barangay Pandag Poblacion, Pandag town, Maguindanao del Sur.

To recall, Pandag is among the towns in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao classified by the police regional office as under the "areas of grave concern" or code red for the 30 October Barangay and SK polls.

Brig. Gen. Allan Nobleza, BARMM police regional director, said 32 towns and 63 villages of the Special Geographic Area in North Cotabato have been classified as "areas of grave concern" in the region.

As of 11 September, 22 election-related violence have been recorded in BARMM since the 28 August filing of Certificates of Candidacy.

During the same period, police also arrested 11 persons for violation of the election gun ban across the region.