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Slate complete for Youth Congress
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Posted on Sep 22 2008
The incoming CNMI Youth Congress is now complete with the election of a third representative from Northern Marianas College.
The House of Representatives yesterday certified Aesha De-Brum Sablan as the winner of the special election held at NMC last Friday.
Twenty-five NMC students came out for the tie-breaker election, giving Sablan 17 votes and her opponent, Vicky Jean Castro, seven votes. One vote has been declared invalid.
Sablan joins the 22 other youth politicians who were elected to the Youth Congress in the regular election conducted Monday, Sept. 15, 2008.
An inaugural Mass will be held for the youth senators-elect on Oct. 17, 2008, at St. Jude Parish. Then the new Youth Congress will be sworn into office on Oct. 18, 2008, at 10am at the House of Representatives’ chamber on Capital Hill.
Youth Congress members serve a term of one year.
This year’s election saw one of the lowest voters turnouts in the history of the Youth Congress. Less than one third of registered voters came out to cast their ballots.
The low turnout was noted in both the school and precinct levels. In the schools, 34 percent—844 out of 2,512—came out to vote. The precincts fared ever worse, with a turnout of 13 percent—131 out of 1,037 voters.
The Youth Congress, according to its enabling statute, was established “to provide a system that allows the youth to prepare to meet the challenges of the future and to make recommendations to the policy makers on youth programs.”
The Youth Congress has three posts for Northern Marianas College, one for each participating public or private high school, and 10 for the election precincts. CNMI residents who are 14 to 20 years are eligible to participate in the Youth Congress.
