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Filipino Muslims in a referendum to vote for an autonomous region

In southern Philippines, Muslims on Monday voted  to decide on a new law which would place them under a substantially more autonomous regional government.

The plebiscite on the Bangsamoro Organic Law could make or break the decades-old peace process between the national government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (the Front), which started out as a secessionist armed movement in the southern island of Mindanao in the late 1970s.

According to a report by the Press Trust of India, Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, chairman of the Moro rebels, has repeatedly said that the creation of a viable Muslim autonomous region is the best antidote to about half a dozen smaller ‘IS-linked’ radical groups that remain a threat in Mindanao, the homeland of minority Muslims in the largely Roman Catholic nation.

“We can roughly conclude that all these splinter groups are a result of the frustration with the peace process,” Murad said in July, when President Rodrigo Duterte signed the legislation creating the new region, called Bangsamoro.

If the “yes” vote wins, the Bangsamoro, which means Moro nation, will replace the existing Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), which has been criticised as merely nominal, and failed to end the violent conflict that has left at least 120,000 people dead over the past five decades.

Voters have until 3pm (07:00 GMT) to cast their ballots.

Under the deal, the rebels gave up their goal of an independent state in exchange for broad autonomy, although they originally wanted a federal unit with more powers. Their 30,000 to 40,000 fighters are to be demobilised.

Murad has appealed to the international community to contribute to a trust fund to be used to finance the insurgents’ transition from decades of waging one of Asia’s longest rebellions.

Centuries of conquest first by Spanish and American colonial forces that had ruled the Philippine archipelago followed by Filipino Christian settlers have gradually turned Muslims into a minority group in Mindanao, triggering conflict over land, resources and sharing of political power.

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