A total of 930 absentee ballots were returned, of which, 210 were considered spoiled, leaving 720 valid votes.
The GOP team received 428 absentee votes while the Covenant ticket got 297.
Fitial and his running mate Lt. Gov. Eloy S. Inos of the ruling Covenant Party will serve for five years based on an election law mandating that the next regular poll be held in an even-numbered year — 2014 — to coincide with the U.S. congressional election.
Fitial and Inos got a total of 6,610 votes while the GOP’s Hofschneider and his running mate Speaker Arnold I. Palacios received 6,240.
Fitial is the first CNMI governor to be re-elected since Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio won a second term in 1985.
The CNMI’s first Carolinian governor will also be the first to receive a majority mandate since the 1993 victory of Froilan C. Tenorio.
Fitial and Inos spent the afternoon at the Covenant headquarters on Middle Road welcoming well-wishers.
Hofschneider topped the Nov. 7 gubernatorial election by only eight votes, and a runoff had to be scheduled because no one received a majority of the votes cast as required by law.
Fitial led by 501 votes following the Nov. 23 runoff.
After greeting well-wishers, Fitial and Inos proceeded to the multi-purpose center where a small ceremony was held at 6 p.m. to light up a giant Christmas tree which is a project of first lady Josie Fitial’s nonprofit organization.
Call for unity
The governor and the lt. governor thanked their supporters and pledged to improve the islands’ economy and the CNMI’s relations with the federal government.
“My message is I want all the people to get together. I am calling for unity and I am inviting everybody who has ideas to help me move the commonwealth forward to come in and share their ideas,” the governor told the Variety.
The governor, who lost his lawsuit against the federalization law, said he will continue to ask the U.S. to allow the CNMI to enforce its own labor and investment laws.
Inos, for his part, said now that the political season is over, the people of the commonwealth should join the administration in rebuilding a better economy.
“It’s time to unite and work together for the common good,” he added.
Inos said the administration is facing a huge task of rebuilding the islands’ tourism-based economy.
But he is confident that the CNMI can be equal to its economic challenges if the people are united.
“All throughout the campaign, we’ve talked about issues that are very important to us and we believe we have the solutions. Five years is more than enough to take care of [our commonwealth]. I am happy and elated that this has come to a close and starting tomorrow, we don’t have to wait until Jan. 11 to start to work, we will put our team together and get things working,” he added.
Covenant Party Chairman Greg Camacho will head the transition team which, Inos said, will help the administration to “further improve its services to the public.”
“We will revisit our mission and after four years of governing, we have a good sense of where the needs are, where the problems are and I think we will just zero in and get those things resolved to put the people at ease,” Inos said.
The GOP could not be immediately reached for comment.
Following the runoff, Juan S. Tenorio, one of the officials of the committee to elect Heinz & Arnold, expressed their party’s congratulations to Fitial and Inos.
Tenorio expressed hope that the ruling party would deliver its promises to the people of the commonwealth.
Hassle-free
The commission picked up five ballot boxes at the U.S. Postal Office around 12 noon and brought them to the multi-purpose center.
Frances Sablan, the chairwoman of the commission, quickly convened the tabulation committee to examine each absentee package.
Sablan said although this is the first time that the commission had a back-to-back election within a very short span of time and limited resources, she said the election process went well.
The commissioners hand-counted all the votes during the runoff and the tabulation of the absentee votes.
Sablan said she’s thankful that the election process went smoothly despite the challenges they faced.
