Ada-Hocog’s candidacy hangs fire

The candidacy of a Covenant Party nominee for the House of Representatives remains in limbo, with her party standing firm in its position regarding her eligibility to run for office and the election commissioners yet to decide on the issue.

Attorney Matthew Gregory, counsel for candidate Rose Ada-Hocog, said yesterday that Ada-Hocog would not sign the affidavit that the Commonwealth Election Commission had required her to submit as a condition for certifying her candidacy.

The Election Commission questioned Ada-Hocog’s candidacy upon finding that she did not vote during the November 2003 election. Registered voters who fail to vote in the preceding general election are removed from the election register. They have to re-register to be eligible to vote again.

Meanwhile, election law requires a candidate for the House of Representatives to be “a registered voter and a resident of the election precinct where he or she is a candidate for at least two years immediately preceding the date of election.”

According to the commission, Ada-Hocog could not run for Election District 1 representative in this year’s election even though she had re-registered to vote. The commission argued that, because her name was removed from the register after the 2003 election, there was no way she could meet the two-year registration requirement for a candidate for the House of Representatives.

But Gregory offered a different interpretation of the statute.

“The way the statute is written, it does not require a person to be registered to vote for two years; it only requires them to be a registered voter and to be a resident of the precinct from which they are running for two years. The only two-year requirement is for residency and not for registration,” Gregory explained.

He maintained that Ada met all the requirements set by the statute for a candidate for the House of Representatives; hence, the commission’s request for her to submit an affidavit attesting to her eligibility was irrelevant.

“There’s no reason to execute an affidavit because the law does not require her to be a registered voter for two years. So what they’re requesting is not relevant to the statute,” Gregory added.

With the Covenant Party rejecting the commission’s request, it is now up to the election commissioners to decide whether or not to certify Ada-Hocog’s candidacy.

CEC executive director Gregorio Sablan said yesterday that the commissioners might not be able to meet until next week due to schedule conflicts.

Covenant Party member Charles Reyes Jr. said the party would consider its options on Ada-Hocog’s candidacy depending on the commission’s decision.