Gregorio “Kilili” C. Sablan, won in Saipan’s Precincts 1, 2, 3 and 4. With the exception of Precinct 2, which is the Covenant Party’s bailiwick, the three other precincts are Republican strongholds.
The Republican Party’s Washington Rep. Pete A. Tenorio trailed Sablan by 360 votes, garnering 1,919.
Tenorio won only in Precinct 5 where he received 312 votes.
About 655 absentee ballots will be counted on Nov. 18. Tenorio still has a mathematical chance to overtake Sablan, but this may be statistically improbable.
Independent candidate John Oliver DLR. Gonzales finished third with 1,740 votes.
Retired Judge Juan T. Lizama, another Independent candidate, came in fourth with 1,611.
Sen. Luis P. Crisostimo, a Democrat who ran as an Independent, received 879 votes while the Democratic candidate, former Sen. David M. Cing, got 270.
Cing topped the race on his island of Tinian while Atalig was way ahead of everyone on Rota.
Saipan Municipal Council member Felipe Q. Atalig received a total of 233 votes, businessman Chong Man Won garnered 219 while public school teacher John Davis finished last with 139.
Congratulations!
Gov. Benigno R. Fitial, who did not publicly endorse any delegate candidate, congratulated Sablan for his victory and thanked all the candidates who participated in the historic election.
“I congratulate Kilili and all of his campaign volunteers for a job very well done,” said Fitial. “And I also congratulate all of the other delegate candidates for entering the arena of politics and waging very impressive political campaigns.”
The governor believes the CNMI’s delegate can help advocate for the islands in Washington, D.C.
“I look forward to working with Kilili for the benefit of the CNMI if his election victory is sustained by the final absentee ballot count,” said Fitial.
He believes that the tabulation of the absentee ballots will not deviate substantially from the trend set in the CNMI.
Both the local Democratic and Republican parties also congratulated Sablan.
“I would like to congratulate Kilili for running a good campaign. I hope that he would rejoin the Democratic Party again. He’s still a Democrat,” said party chairman Manuel Sablan.
Ed Tenorio, the president of the NMI Republican Party, for his part, said: “I congratulate Mr. Sablan. This is a historic election. I’m pretty sure that Mr. Sablan put in a lot of efforts to ask for voters’ support. I wish him well,” he said.
He expressed hope that Sablan will continue to follow-up on building a military-based economy for the islands which continue to grapple with a 10-year economic slump.
“The military expansion here is an opportunity for us to improve our economy,” said the GOP president.
Not yet over
In a phone interview, Sablan said he’s happy about the election results but he won’t claim victory until all the absentee ballots are counted.
“I am happy but it’s not over yet,” he told Variety.
If he is proclaimed the winner, he said the CNMI’s economy will be his priority.
“The real work begins in January. The islands’ economy is my priority…. We are an island in the middle of an ocean. We have limitations but we also have opportunities. We must advance our economy. And we must restore our good relationship with the U.S.,” he said.
Sablan is a former two-term Democratic member of the CNMI House of Representatives and was a special assistant to Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii. He also served as special assistant for management and budget for then-Gov. Froilan C. Tenorio, a Democrat.
House Floor Leader Joseph N. Camacho, a Republican who supported Sablan, said his cousin is the right man for the job.
“Though I am a Republican, I am convinced that he’s the right man to represent us in Washington, D.C. He has the energy and the right plan to help jump-start the economy of the CNMI,” he said.
“We are thankful and grateful to all who supported and voted for Kilili,” he added.
Seven hours
It took the seven members of the Commonwealth Election Commission seven hours to manually count all the ballots cast on Tuesday.
Chairwoman Frances Sablan convened the members around 12:15 a.m. and they completed the canvassing at 7:15 a.m.
Although the commission has counting machines, they weren’t used during this year due to budget constraints.
The commission didn’t get enough funding to print the special ballots that can be read mechanically.
But Chairwoman Sablan said the commission will make sure that it will get enough funding support for machine tabulation when the CNMI general elections are held in Nov. 2009.
“Next year, it won’t happen [the manual counting of ballots]. We will get the money so we don’t have to be switching over to the manual mode,” she said.
Aside from the governor and the lt. governor, CNMI voters next year will also elect 20 House members, six senators, four mayors, 12 council members and two Board of Education members.
Voter turnout
Chairwoman Sablan said 9,394 votes were cast on the islands — 72 percent of the 12,947 registered voters.
In the 2007 midterm elections, the voter turnout was 69 percent.
The delegate-elect will be sworn in as member of the U.S. House of Representatives on Jan. 3, 2009.
His office will get about $1 million from the federal government.
Like other members of the U.S. Congress, his annual salary is $170,000.
The delegate can introduce bills and participate in committee deliberations but he has no voting rights on the floor.
