Senate substitute bill focuses only on NMI’s 1st AG election

The Senate passed a substitute version of a House election amendment bill that retains only those provisions pertaining to the CNMI’s first election of an attorney general in November 2014, leaving out other earlier proposals such as changing the general election from Saturday to “the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November in even numbered years.”

“We focused more on the AG election… All other issues will be addressed separately, because we have lots of issues and need clarification,” Senate President Ralph Torres (R-Saipan) told Saipan Tribune yesterday.

House Bill 18-107, House Draft 1, Senate Substitute 1 passed the Senate by a vote of 8-0 during Friday’s session on Rota. A copy of the Senate substitute bill was transmitted only yesterday.

The bill amends CNMI election laws to provide for an AG election, reflecting voters’ ratification in 2012 of a legislative initiative.

It requires that the ballots contain the names of AG candidates, establishes the qualifications of the AG position, provides for the nomination of an AG, and a runoff election for the AG.

Rep. Christopher Leon Guerrero (Cov-Saipan), author of the original bill, and Commonwealth Election Commission executive director Robert Guerrero separately said yesterday that they have yet to see a copy of the Senate version of the bill.

The election bill goes back to the House, which can either reject or accept the Senate version.

Both the House and Senate held its last sessions for 2013 last week.

Leon Guerrero said if the House rejects the Senate substitute, there would be a conference committee on the bill, less than a year before the general elections.

Under the bill, an AG candidate shall be at least 35 years old, a U.S. citizen and a resident and domiciliary of the CNMI for at least five years immediately preceding the date on which the AG takes office.

The AG candidate must also be an active member in good standing of the Commonwealth Bar Association for at least five years preceding the date the AG takes office and have not been suspended from practice of law in any U.S. jurisdiction for ethics rules violations governing the practice of attorneys. AG candidates shall also be nominated by at least 200 voters.

The non-refundable filing fee for each AG candidate is $500.

If no AG candidate receives more than half of the total votes cast, a runoff is required 14 days after the Commonwealth Election Commission certifies the results of the general elections.

Other House proposed changes to CNMI election laws that the Senate left out in its own version were polling hour changes for early voting, reducing from five to three the signatures of commissioners needed to verify discrepancy noted as the cause for rejection of an absentee ballot, and reduction in the number of observers from each political party from two to one.