House Bill 17-87 is now Public Law 17-22.
The House of Representatives on Friday passed the bill as amended by the Senate.
Only Floor Leader George N. Camacho, Ind.-Saipan, voted no, while the 15 other members voted for the bill’s passage.
House Minority Leader Diego T. Benavente, R-Saipan, Reps. Joseph P. Deleon Guerrero, R-Saipan, Ray N. Yumul, R-Saipan, and Ralph S. Demapan, Covenant-Saipan, were absent.
Introduced by Rep. Stanley T. Torres, Ind.-Saipan, the new law moves the Oct. 18 election to the first Monday of March next year.
It also eliminated the youth elections in the precincts and Northern Marianas College.
Torres said most youths vote at public and private schools and that youth election in the precincts is prone to election fraud.
He remembered that during the last Youth Congress election, four youths who had already voted in their schools were caught trying to vote again in Gualo Rai.
Camacho said he voted against the bill because of the amendment the Senate made to the Legislative Bureau director’s expenditure authority.
In the bill’s original version, the Legislative Bureau will be the expenditure authority of the funds appropriated to the Youth Congress with the consent of the speaker of the Youth Congress.
The Senate changed the word “consent” to “consultation.”
The bill now goes to the governor.
