I WANT to start off by congratulating all those that ran under the AD 2022 Team and other candidates for their victory in this election.
I am a witness to Arnold Palacios and David Apatang’s concern for the team’s candidates for mayor, the Senate and House of Representative. They put more efforts for the candidates running under Team AD than they do for their own election for Governor and Lt. Governor. It truly shows by the results of the number of successful elected members under the team. The recognition of their efforts by the winners of our team acknowledged that by thanking both Arnold and Dave. They do not take for granted the contribution and effort of both Arnold and Dave.
They posted in our chat group their appreciation and to all the other supporters who spent hours of their time for the preparation of logistics and personal contributions. Granted none of us are rich, every little bit helps.
Having to represent the political party I support has been both physically trying and rewarding. More than not, the process requires an overnight stay to observe the system of tabulation to reconcile the ballots before proceeding to the counting of the ballots, but more troubling comes oftentimes past midnight as the counting begins. It is exhausting to start with, but the desire to ensure that we are vigilant to protect the integrity of the process is top in our assignment. It is refreshing to see that the staff and management of the election commission are quick to respond to any of our concerns.
It is when the results are being announced that was more stressful.
Each time any of our team members lagged behind in the results I felt the adrenaline building up. I feel the impact most especially when the counting is over and some of the team members didn’t make it. You go in with the expectation to report back to the headquarters positive numbers. That is not necessarily the case on some occasion. Sometimes it is my sad duty to report disappointment that resulted in several of the team members not winning the election.
After the final count of the ballots, I had time to reflect on what really happened. It is natural to start off by questioning if you could have done a better job campaigning or begin to speculate in your mind what could have caused that. When you are rested and have the time to reflect, you start to notice things you missed.
For example, Governor Torres and his running mate garnered 5,726 votes. You then try to rationalize why the candidates under the Governor did not win. Then you compare that with AD’s 4,890 votes.
Notice that the difference between AD and TS is 836 votes in favor of Torres-Sablan. So then you ask yourself why did the AD team’s Saipan mayoral candidate, 1 senatorial candidate out of 2, two out of four candidates for the House in Precinct 1, two out 2 in Precinct 2, three out of 4 in Precinct 3, two out of 2 in Precinct 4, and one in Precinct 5 win? A total of 12 successful candidates under the AD team.
The Torres-Sablan team received 836 votes more than AD but didn’t win the Saipan mayoral race, lost the Senate, and won only 1 House seat in Precinct 1 and another in Precinct 5. They lost in Precincts 2, 3 and 4.
A total win of ONLY TWO House seats. Doesn’t it appear very strange? Could it be that they are only concerned for ME, ME, ME only and did not share their votes with the candidates under his team? If I were running under their banner, I would be questioning the results. It defies the odds that they can receive such a high number of votes and leave his soldiers high and dry. Didn’t they think that if they succeeded and took out the sword to charge forward, that he may find no soldiers are charging along with him? I’m so glad that none of our soldiers are questioning the results of the election under the AD Team. Despite not receiving a winning number, AD was fortunate that the Democratic Party saw the wisdom in supporting the AD Team because they both share the goal of rebuilding trust, providing transparency, accountability and good governance. They are right. Both Arnold and Dave should be held to the highest ethical standards after they are elected. It should be simple since that was the campaign in which they ran.
The information I shared here is strictly my opinion. Sometimes there’s a need to start rationalizing election results to make sense. This opinion is not to offend anyone but only to feel if anyone out there share my analysis.
PETE P. REYES
Former CNMI Senator
