Asks Comelec to hold special voters’ registration in the province
 
MANILA - In 2001, his supporters attacked a police station and torched houses in Sulu. In 2007, he wanted to become governor of that province, but the voters rejected him. Now, former Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) chief Nur Misuari wants to give it another try because there’s supposedly a clamor for him to do so.

Misuari, who was also former governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), said on Monday that he is planning to run again for Sulu governor in the 2010 elections.

“I am going to run again [as governor].… I am decided already because so many pressures are coming to me,” Misuari told reporters when he went to ask the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to hold a special voters’ registration in Sulu.

Misuari said that there is a clamor for him to seek the gubernatorial post in Sulu. “My house is always full of people asking me to run.”

Misuari said that he might face incumbent Sulu governor Abdul Sakur Tan and Sulu Rep. Munir Arbison in the gubernatorial race next year. Sakur Tan is a first-term governor, while Arbison is a third-term congressman representing the province’s second district.

May run, may not

Misuari, however, said that he might change his mind or reconsider his plans if the peace talks will prosper. 

“If they turn over the autonomy to us before the election, then maybe I don’t have to. If they don’t, I will have to proceed with my candidacy,” he said.

Misuari also ran in 2007 for the same post, but he finished behind Sakur Tan and former Governor Benjamin Loong.

Misuari was at the Comelec in Manila to ask the poll body to consider in its en banc meeting on Tuesday the holding a 2- to 3-day special registration in the province of Sulu. Some voters in the province were unable to register because the bombings that occurred in the province forced them to flee.

“Ang mga tao ay nagkawatak-watak [as a result of the bombings],” Misuari said. “Ngayon kalma na ang mga tao. They have to join this democratic process and to begin it, they have to register.”

Neutral place

The former chair of the MNLF said some mayors controlled the registration process and this resulted in low voter registration turnout.

“People who are not openly with them shy away from the precincts,” Misuari said. The Comelec, he said, should consider holding the registration in a neutral place.

“I suggest they choose a neutral place where no dirty hands can possibly do monkey business with this democratic exercise,” the former ARMM governor said.

Misuari was elected as ARMM governor in 1996. He is facing rebellion charges for an uprising of his supporters in Zamboanga City and Sulu, where they torched houses in 2001. (Newsbreak)