Tenorio, Covenant-Saipan, said in the states, the members of both houses of a bicameral legislature are based on population.
In the CNMI, however, under the Covenant, the bicameral legislature was patterned after the U.S. Congress and is inconsistent with the U.S. Supreme Court’s “one-man, one-vote” ruling.
The Covenant provision requiring a bicameral legislature can only be amended through mutual consent of the CNMI and the U.S.
Tenorio, a former Washington representative and governor, said he will one day challenge the Covenant provision that allows Tinian and Rota to have the same number of senators as the more populated Saipan.
He noted that while the three senators on Saipan represent over 45,000 people, the three senators on Tinian and the three on Rota represent not even close to 5,000 people.
The U.S. government, he added, should not have allowed Tinian and Rota to have the same number of senators as Saipan.
