MANILA — Nineteen people were killed and 19 others were wounded in barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections this year, the Commission on Elections said on Tuesday.

There are "29 incidents resulting in 19 deaths and we have 113 others which not necessarily resulted in deaths but are incidents which are still being validated," Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco told ANC.

"For the confirmed injuries related to the elections, [there are] 19," he added.

The official did not provide details on the election-related fatalities.

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Police earlier said two people were killed and five others were wounded outside a polling station in Maguindanao del Norte province.

The shootout happened during a confrontation between supporters of rival candidates for village captain, said Datu Odin Sinsuat municipality police chief Lieutenant-Colonel Esmail Madin.

In another incident in Mindanao, a woman was killed when a gunfight broke out after a van carrying a village captain and her supporters was stopped on a road by people backing her rival in Lanao del Norte province, the army said.

The husband of a village captain in Lanao del Sur province died after he was shot in the chest during a confrontation with his wife's rival, police said.

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CAUSE FOR CONCERN

Laudiangco said that while the numbers were "quite low" compared to the previous 2018 village polls, the figures were still a cause for concern.

"[W]e really have to improve this situation. We have to…normalize elections to the people that it must not result in any form of violence," he said.

Previous police data showed eight people were killed and seven injured in poll-related violence between August 28 and October 25.

Some 67 million people were registered to vote in the elections, which President Ferdinand Marcos described Monday as "very important" for higher-level politicians.

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— With a report from Agence France-Presse