The students of Sam McPhetres’ Current Issues Class, who announced the survey results on Friday, said it was conducted within a two-week time span and because of limited resources they were not able to get results from Tinian.
“Because of this, we cannot say that this is fully the CNMI opinion,” one of the students said.
The survey was conducted in high traffic areas including the Flame Tree Arts Festival, the Thursday Street Market and the multi-purpose center.
690 people were surveyed on Saipan and 145 on Rota.
On Saipan, 275 responded yes to reunification and 415 responded no. Of the 415 that said no, 329 were U.S. citizens, voters or residents.
Of the 275 who said yes, 143 were U.S. citizens, voters or residents.
352 of the respondents were males and 322 were females.
On Rota, 121 supported reunification and 24 opposed it.
Of the 24 that said no, 13 were U.S. citizens, voters or residents.
Of the 121 that said yes, 60 were U.S. citizens, voters or residents.
Majority of the respondents were Chamorros.
Among those who favored reunification, the three main reasons given were: it would be good for the economy; one single political entity; and tourism and environment.
Those who said no said they did not want the people of the NMI to be the minority; “Guam just wants our political freedom”; and “they will have more to gain than we will.”
Lorraine Cabrera, NMC interim president, said: “It’s too bad Tinian did not participate; it would have been interesting to see the results since geographically Rota is closer to Guam and Tinian is closer to Saipan.”
According to one of the students who conducted the survey, “A majority of people at first was unsure of their opinion. They were not sure what exactly reunification was. If they were more informed, they would be able to make a better educated opinion.”
Another student said “the results are almost 50-50 so we can’t really say this is the opinion of the CNMI. Also, we may have missed a whole community of people who may have been for reunification. Based on what we’ve done, this is not enough to judge if people are in favor or not. It’s about time do an official poll since the last one was taken in 1969.”
In that year, the NMI people voted in favor of reunification with Guam in a plebiscite. But Guam voted against it.
Recently, Guam Sen. Judith P. Guthertz and Saipan Rep. Joseph M. Palacios introduced measures that call for another nonbinding reunification plebiscite in both territories which used to be a single political entity until 1898 when Guam became a U.S. possession and the Germans took over the NMI. In 1914, the NMI was acquired by Japan whose administration ended when the Americans invaded the islands in 1944 during World War II.
