Two days after the automated elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the Commission on Elections announced the victory of Zaldy Ampatuan as Governor and Ansaruddin-Abdul Malik Alonto Adiong as Vice Governor. Both are reelectionists into their second term, belonging to the administration party Lakas-CMD. This may come as no surprise -- in the past two national elections, the ARMM has been the administration’s bailiwick. President Gloria Arroyo and her allies won in the 2004 and 2007 elections in four ARMM provinces: Sulu, Basilan, Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao.
| PROVINCE | WINNER IN
2004 ELECTION | WINNER IN
2007 ELECTION | TOPNOTCHER
IN THE 2007
SENATORIAL ELECTION |
| Basilan | Arroyo | administration | Legarda |
| Tawi-Tawi | FPJ | administration | Kiram |
| Shariff Kabunsuan | new | administration | Angara |
| Sulu | Arroyo | administration | Kiram |
| Maguindanao | Arroyo | administration | Zubiri |
| Lanao del Sur | Arroyo | administration | Kiram |
Source: GMA News Research based on COMELEC data |
Only in Tawi-tawi did Arroyo's closest rival, the late actor Fernando Poe Jr. manage to win in 2004. Votes in the ARMM were crucial to ensuring Arroyo's winning margin of 1.1 million votes over Poe: it delivered 17 percent of Arroyo’s Mindanao votes.
2007 senatorial elections Administration candidates won majority of the 12 slots in Sulu, Basilan, Shariff Kabunsuan, Tawi-Tawi and Lanao del Sur. In Maguindanao, it was 12-0 for the administration ticket. Administration senatorial bet Juan Miguel “Migz" Zubiri topped the controversial senatorial polls in Maguindanao and placed 12th in the national count. In June, the Senate Electoral Tribunal decided to proceed with the election protest of opposition senatorial candidate Aquilino “Koko" Pimentel III after finding "reasonable ground to believe that the final outcome of the case" could unseat 12th placer Zubiri. In July, the Supreme Court denied with finality the petition filed by Pimentel III seeking to exclude votes from Maguindanao. SC previously denied Pimentel's petition for a temporary restraining order, leading to Zubiri's proclamation.
Controversial ARMM Except for Shariff Kabunsuan (which was still part of Maguindanao in 2004), all provinces in ARMM were mentioned in the
Hello Garci wiretapped conversations during the 2004 elections. The opposition had objected to the certificates of canvass from ARMM provinces Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao and Tawi-Tawi during the congressional canvass of the presidential and vice presidential votes in 2004. Defeated vice presidential bet Loren Legarda filed an election protest against Vice President Noli de Castro, claiming manipulated results in six provinces, one city and five municipalities. The provinces include Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao. The Presidential Electoral Tribunal junked the election protest in January "for lack of legal and factual basis."
Registered voters The Comelec expected 1,516,260 voters to go out and vote in the ARMM elections. Among the ARMM provinces, Lanao del Sur has the highest number of registered voters in 2008. Earlier, election experts had pointed out that the 62.74- percentage increase in the number of registered voters from 2004 to 2007 in Lanao del Sur was "statistically improbable". In a 2007 article of the Philippine center for Investigative Journalism, former Comelec chair Benjamin Abalos said there were more than 100,000 mulitiple registrants in the ARMM’s voters' list in the regional elections in 2005. In March this year, the Comelec issued a resolution setting guidelines on the deletion of the names of verified double/multiple registrants in the list of voters in the ARMM. The Comelec resolution cited reports from its Information and Technology Department confirming that 18, 983 registered voters in the ARMM have multiple registration. Experts in the poll body found that some of the voters used different names in registering, but the fingerprint imprints in the Comelec database gave them away. In April, new Comelec chair Jose Melo signed another resolution further instructing the ARMM election officers to review and ensure the integrity of the voters' list.
NUMBER OF REGISTERED VOTERS IN ARMM |
REGISTERED VOTERS | 2004 | 2007 | 2008 |
| Basilan | 117,467 | 147,455 | 150,673 |
| Lanao del Sur | 275,572 | 448,472 | 459,012 |
| Maguindanao | 334,287 | 227,603 | 245,415 |
| Shariff Kabunsuan | | 214,645 | 224,606 |
| Sulu | 209,677 | 274,655 | 280,527 |
| Tawi-Tawi | 120,455 | 151,431 | 156,027 |
| TOTAL | 1,057,458 | 1,464,261 | 1,516,260 |
Source: Commission on Elections |
Voter turnout The ARMM has consistently had higher voter turnout in the elections, compared to the voter turnout nationwide. Initial Comelec reports place the 2008 voter turnout at 84 percent. In the 2007 national elections, 80.10% or 8 in 10 registered voters in ARMM actually voted. This was the second highest turnout among the regions, next only to the Ilocos Region. The national voter turnout in 2007 was 73.11%.
| AREA | 2004 | 2007 |
| NATIONAL | 76.99% | 73.11% |
| ARMM | 77.71 | 80.10% |
Source: Comelec |
Among the ARMM provinces, Maguindanao had the highest voter turnout at 96.63%. This means almost all registered voters in Maguindanao took part in May 2007 elections. This ARMM elections, the Comelec fears that recent violence between the MILF forces and the AFP in neighboring towns in North Cotabato may scare away the voters.
With reports from Karen Tiongson-Mayrina, GMA News Research 
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