Voter gunned down near Maguindanao del Norte polling center

COTABATO — A voter died of a gunshot wound sustained as two groups supporting rival candidates clashed in the premises of a polling site in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte on Monday afternoon.

Brig. Gen. Allan Nobleza, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, on Tuesday said that the trouble, that resulted in the death of Esmael Genta, caused tension among teachers facilitating the elections in rooms in the Sarilikha High School in Barangay Semba in Datu Odin Sinsuat.

Gunshots reverberated through the scene as the two groups clashed and Genta, who was hit with a bullet in the neck while running away, slumped face down on a stretch of the concrete highway near the school campus where polling was being held. He died in a hospital.

Investigators from the Datu Odin Sinsuat Municipal Police Station under Lt. Col. Esmael Madin are still trying to identify who fired that gun that killed Genta.