Authorities said two people were killed and five injured on Monday in the Philippines, where local elections are being held under high security, after several months of violent clashes related to the vote.
Elections are risky times in the Philippines, where gun laws are lax and the political culture is violent.
According to police, two people were killed and five others injured on Monday outside a polling station in Maguindanao del Norte province on the island of Mindanao in the south of the archipelago.
The incident occurred during a clash between supporters of rival candidates for village chief, said Lt. Col. Esmail Madin, police chief of Datu Odin Sinsuat township.
Two schools in the province that were supposed to be used as polling stations were also deliberately set on fire on Saturday, Electoral Commission Chairman George Garcia told reporters on Sunday.
More than 67 million voters have registered to renew 336,000 positions in barangay councils (village or township councils), the country’s smallest administrative unit, including the influential post of village chief.
These positions are the subject of intense debate as they are used by political parties to form their networks and build a support base for further elections.
“What happens here in the barangay (village) … will affect the results of the midterm elections and then the national elections,” President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said after voting in his family stronghold from Batac Ilocos Norte (North Province).
More than 300,000 police and soldiers were deployed to secure polling stations.
Thirty cases of election-related violence were reported before Monday’s vote, compared to 35 in 2018, the Philippine National Police said on Sunday.
Police previously reported that eight people were killed and seven injured in election-related violence between August 28 and October 25.
These local elections were supposed to take place every three years, but have been postponed several times, with the last election taking place in 2018.