COTABATO CITY -- The first Bangsamoro parliamentary election will push through on September 14 this year after a long delay, a senior Commission on Elections official said Monday.

In a statement, Lawyer Ray Sumalipao, regional director of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said candidates for the 32 district parliamentary seats began filing their certificates of candidacy (COCs) on Monday, with the filing period running until May 7.

"I think there will be no more delays. The election process has started. Election Day will be on September 14," Sumalipao told reporters in Marawi City.

UBJP officials informed Sumalipao that the group's candidates plan to file their COCs on the last day of the filing period, May 7, pending the party's accreditation by Comelec.

In an en banc resolution dated May 6, Comelec Manila dismissed the two petitions seeking to block the accreditation and registration of the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP) as a regional political party, clearing it to participate in the upcoming September 14 elections.

The resolution, issued under SPP No. 26-002 (BPP), ruled that UBJP had sufficiently complied with all substantive and procedural requirements under the Bangsamoro Electoral Code and its 2026 Implementing Rules and Regulations. The poll body found that the oppositors failed to substantiate their allegations of financial linkages between UBJP and a foreign humanitarian organization.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed a landmark peace agreement with the Philippine government in 2014, ending decades of armed conflict and paving the way for the creation of the BARMM.