COTABATO, Philippines: Three people were killed and 15 others wounded as gunfire erupted hours before polls were to open Monday in a semi-autonomous Muslim region of the Philippines set to choose its first elected parliament.

The vote is the culmination of an on-off peace process that began in the late 1990s and established the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in the country’s far south.

Cotabato police chief Jibin Bongcayao said the shooting took place just before midnight as members of rival political factions jostled for the right to cast their votes first.

“It started as a struggle for position in the queue between two groups,” Bongcayao said of the shooting outside a school being used as a polling station in the regional capital.

“It led to shoving, escalated into a fistfight, and eventually gunfire broke out in a crowded area.”

Bongcayao added that the men had belonged to rival parties that have emerged from the group that spent decades fighting for regional autonomy in the predominantly Catholic country, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

In a region long marred by political violence and blood feuds between powerful families, a peaceful election would be considered a successful one, party leaders recently told visiting AFP journalists.

Security has been stepped up across the BARMM in recent days, with more than 20,000 security personnel fanning out in voting areas and quick response teams assembled to address potential violence.

Last month, a motorcade carrying the region’s interim chief minister — an appointee of President Ferdinand Marcos — was ambushed and peppered with bullets.

In a separate incident, a man died in hospital in the early hours of Monday following an explosion near another polling station. Police are still investigating the cause.