COTABATO CITY (MindaNews / 15 May) – The husband will govern Sultan Kudarat province while the wife, neighboring Maguindanao, starting noon of June 30.
Suharto “Teng” Mangudadatu led by a wide margin against independent candidate Carlos Valdez Jr. in the gubernatorial race in Sultan Kudarat, 223,043 votes versus 40,945, according to unofficial results based on 100% of election returns as posted on ABS-CBN’s Halalan 2019 website.
Mangudadatu is incumbent Sultan Kudarat 1st district representative.
In Maguindanao, Bai Mariam Lim Sangki-Mangudadatu defeated Datu Freddie Mangudadatu, incumbent mayor of the municipality of Mangudadatu and brother of incumbent Gov. Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu.
As of 5:01 p.m. Wednesday, Bai Mariam garnered 252,073 votes while her rival had 194,761 votes with 96.2% of election returns already transmitted.
Of Maguindanao’s 766,497 voters, 533,389 went to the polls on Monday.
Suharto will succeed his father, Gov. Sultan Pax Mangudadatu.
Sultan Pax is brother of Datu Pua, father of Freddie and Esmael Mangudadatu.
Bai Mariam’s family teamed up with the four ruling clans of Maguindanao – Sinsuat, Mastura, Midtimbang and Ampatuan to exploit the so-called command vote, which remains a major factor in winning elections in the province.
She said uniting the five ruling clans would prevent violence among them.
Bai Mariam will be Maguindanao’s first woman governor. (Ferdinandh B. Cabrera / MindaNews)