Blalock, however, fell short of inquiring on how this upcoming election should be treated, taking into account that President Bush signed S. 2739 into law on May 8 of this year. In accordance with Sec. 712 (b) of P.L. 110-229, the responsibility of the “Manner of the Election,” rests with “legislation enacted in accordance with the Constitution of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.”
It is worth noting that Blalock only focused his inquiry on Art. 4 Section 8 of the CNMI Constitution, which in my view (and I’m not an attorney), is dead on. Nonetheless, if we “switched gears” and examine Art. VIII, Section 2, we would see that “other elections may be held as provided by law.”
Now, the issue at hand reverts back to my earlier point which is, “how should the CNMI treat this upcoming election”? Should it treat it as a “regular election” or a “special election”?
With only one seat up for grabs (two seats, if Senator Crisostimo resigns his post), I think it would be difficult for the Legislature to treat this coming election as a “regular election.” Moreover, there are two things to consider when trying to “disqualify” a candidate based on a constitutional provision that, as shown above, conflicts with another provision found in the same local Constitution. First, do we want the U.S. District Court to intervene and once again strike down another provision of the CNMI’s Constitution, as was the case with the submerged lands issue? And secondly, would it be fair to disqualify a candidate given that this U.S. public law was just enacted this year?
Finally, I want to add on to Mr. Blalock’s list of questions. While I understand that Senator Crisostimo must resign his elective post upon certification of his candidacy, another question worth posing is: would the same law apply to Washington Rep. Pete A. Tenorio? Additionally, I want to know what happens to the more than a hundred Labor and Immigration personnel that will be adversely affected by the same U.S. law creating the non-voting delegate seat; particularly, those who only have a few years to retire. For the fortunate employees absorbed (based on qualifications) by Federal Immigration, would their services under the feds be counted toward the CNMI’s retirement vested service program? A dual retirement system, so to speak.
I agree with Harry that a lot of “hard questions” must be asked of the candidates vying for this historic office and the time to ask is now!
KIMO MAFNAS ROSARIO
Koblerville, Saipan
