Post-conflict party-building in Southern Philippines: the promise and perils of institutional re-engineering in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao

The passage of the Bangsamoro Electoral Code (BEC) in 2023 opens a window of opportunity for political and electoral reforms in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). The BEC seeks to induce party-based elections under the autonomous region’s quasi-parliamentary set-up. This institutional engineering aims to consolidate the gains of the negotiated peace settlement between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) by providing incentives for former combatants to transition from “bullets to ballots.” However, democratic procedures and party-building alone may not fix deep-seated issues, especially in countries deeply affected by conflict. Transformative peacebuilding requires a simultaneous state-building and democratization process that can secure political order in post-conflict states. However, peacebuilding, state-building, and democracy-building may not be mutually reinforcing. Political transitions often result in a “hybrid peace dynamic,” in which liberal and illiberal features, violence, and stability coexist and compete. Negotiated peace settlements should be seen as the start of a new stage of elite conflict through contestation and accommodation.