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Atalig appeals dismissal of election protest
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Posted on Dec 20 2005
Defeated Rota mayoral candidate Vicente Manglona Atalig has appealed Superior Court Associate Judge Kenneth Govendo’s decision dismissing his election protest.
Attorney Stephen C. Woodruff told the Saipan Tribune that his client, Atalig, advised him to appeal to the CNMI Supreme Court.
Woodruff said he filed the notice of appeal on Monday afternoon.
Atalig did not file a motion for reconsideration in Superior Court and went straight to the high court because his lawsuit is an election protest, the lawyer explained.
Woodruff said it was only the technical issue that Govendo ruled on.
He said the judge in dismissing the case cited that the law required only seven days to file an election challenge.
Woodruff said there is a question, among other things, whether to count weekends or holidays.
But a very important issue that was not ruled on, he said, is that the Commonwealth Election Commission’s failure to open the 72 unopened absentee ballot envelopes was illegal.
Woodruff said when the CEC board made a vote, five commissioners were in favor not to open the envelopes.
“The law requires three-fourth votes or it means six. So it’s illegal,” he stressed.
The lawyer said Atalig’s counsel Antonio Atalig wrote a letter to CEC on Nov. 23 about their concerns.
Woodruff said CEC, through the Attorney General’s Office, responded to the counsel’s letter five days later or on Nov. 28.
Atalig’s lawsuit was filed on Dec. 2.
Atalig’s lawsuit sought a court action to count the 72 unopened ballot envelopes. He sued CEC and its commissioners.
Atalig, of the Republican Party, also named as a real party in interest co-defendant Joseph Inos of the Covenant Party who got 11 more votes than him
But Govendo ruled from the bench, dismissing the lawsuit.
“The law is very clear here and in other jurisdictions. You can twist it, you can turn, you can put it upside down. But seven days is seven days,” said Govendo in granting Inos’ motion to dismiss Atalig’s lawsuit.
The election challenge was not filed within the seven-day rule as required by the statute, said the judge as he explained that the motion is granted on jurisdictional grounds only.
