Voters in the southern Philippines have rejected being included in an administrative zone run by former Muslim rebels, election returns suggested today.
Officials said partial returns showed nine of 10 provinces and 12 of 14 cities -- all predominantly Christian - voted against joining the so-called Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
It is run by former rebels who signed a peace deal with Manila in 1996 renouncing their goal of a separate Muslim state in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic country.
It would seem that the no votes overwhelmed the yes, said Alfredo Benipayo, chairman of the poll watchdog Commission on Elections (Comelec) said on the ANC television network.
Voters had been asked if they wanted their province to be part of the ARMM, currently made up of just four small, impoverished provinces with largely Muslim populations.
Only in Marawi and Cotabato cities and on Basilan island - where Muslim Abu Sayyaf extremists have been holding two Americans and 16 Filipinos hostage for almost three months - did voting trends favour joining the ARMM, officials said.
With their inclusion, the Muslim zone would embrace five provinces and two cities with a total population of 3.2 million, or about four per cent of the country's 76 million people.
Most of the areas which voted in the plebiscite are overwhelmingly dominated by Christians and the sentiment against joining ARMM was so powerful the no votes amounted to 99 per cent in some polling centres, officials said.
Despite Manila's pledge to pour in over 1 billion to develop the Muslim zone - one of the country's poorest regions - the rich Christian provinces shunned the thought of joining because of the separatist violence racking the area, they said.
The dismal failure of former rebel chief Nur Misuari to fulfill his promise to develop the area during his five years as regional governor was also a major factor, a senior government official told Reuters.