A Commission on Elections (Comelec) official on Tuesday revealed the poll body’s plan to conduct a massive voter education drive in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) ahead of its first Parliamentary Elections next year.

Comelec Spokesperson Atty. Rex Laudiangco said the voter education drive aims to educate the voters in the region who will be voting for the first time on the members of the Bangsamoro Parliament.

Under the Bangsamoro Organic Law, a total of 80 parliamentary seats is at stake on 12 May 2025 in the BARMM Parliamentary Elections.

The allocation of the parliamentary seats is as follows: 40 will come from the representatives of Regional Political Parties; 32 from representatives of Parliamentary Districts; and eight seats are reserved for sectoral representatives, namely the Non-Moro Indigenous Peoples, settler communities, women, youth, traditional leaders, and Ulama or scholars in Islam.

"For many of our kababayans (countrymen) in the region," Laudiangco said, "the BARMM Parliamentary Elections is the culmination of the Bangsamoro Peoples' decades-long struggle for recognition and self-determination. Therefore, we deem it important to educate the BARMM voters on the new voting system to ensure the success of this historic electoral exercise."

Laudiangco said the poll body’s Education and Information Department (EID) will be holding BARMM Parliamentary Elections Voter Education Micro Summits in September.

These, he said, "aim to gather the various stakeholders in the region such as local government units, academic institutions, political parties, sectoral groups, civil society organizations, and citizens' arms; to synergize efforts in ensuring an informed and educated electorate in the region."

During said micro summits, subject matter experts from the Comelec EID, the Law Department, and the Bangsamoro Electoral Office are expected to discuss the rudiments of the regional parliamentary elections, giving primary focus on what the voters in the region need to know and fully grasp: the composition of the Bangsamoro Parliament, the system of proportional representation, the allocation of parliamentary seats, and the manner of their election.

"It is our hope that after the Summit, we will be able to secure the participating organizations' commitment to help increase awareness in the Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections," Laudiangco said.

The Comelec EID will also send voter education teams to all the BARMM provinces to conduct a massive voter education and information drive at the ground level, according to Laudiangco.