Former Muslim rebels lead results in first election held in southern Philippine region

MANILA, Philippines -- Candidates from two rival parties associated with a former rebel group led the first elections in a predominately Muslim region in the southern Philippines, official results showed Wednesday.The election was a significant step forward for self-rule in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which was rocked by deadly separatist uprisings for decades until a 2014 peace deal in which Muslim rebels agreed to lay down their arms in exchange for a promise of autonomy.Parties linked to the former Moro Islamic Liberation Front led the polls, though none took a big majority. It remains unclear which camp will dominate the regional parliament.Under the peace deal, the autonomous region replaced an older autonomous region with a larger, better-funded and more powerful area. In exchange, the Moro Front’s 40,000 fighters would be “demobilized” and given livelihoods and other help to resume normal life. Since the 1970s, about 150,000 combatants and civilians have died in the southern Philippines, while development was stunted in the country’s poorest region. With bombing attacks and kidnappings, Mindanao was seen as a haven for al-Qaida and the Islamic State ...