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WITH GUBERNATORIAL RACE GETTING CROWDED
CEC chief urges candidates: File your candidacies early
Commonwealth Election Commission executive director Robert A. Guerrero is encouraging candidates for the November elections to file their candidacies early.
In an interview on Wednesday, Guerrero said the advantage in filing early is that if there are not enough signatures on a candidate’s petition, then there’s ample time to gather more signatures before the closing date.
For example, Guerrero said, the gubernatorial candidates need 200 signatures from registered voters in order to be certified as candidates.
The executive director said any candidates who are short of signatures would have until Aug. 6 to submit the petition back to the Commonwealth Election Commission.
Guerrero said that if a candidate resubmits a petition but there are still not enough signatures during the commission’s tally, then the commission can’t return it back to tell the candidates they are still short.
The filing deadline is Aug. 6.
On Thursday, Gov. Eloy S. Inos and Senate President Ralph Torres (R-Saipan) led the filing of candidacies for 26 Republican candidates at CEC.
On Wednesday, former governor Juan N. Babauta and former senator Juan S. Torres filed their candidacies for governor and lieutenant governor respectively, at CEC. Babauta and Torres filed their candidacies along with Benjamin Cepeda, their lone candidate for House of Representatives for Precinct 1.
Two other teams vying for the gubernatorial seat have yet to file their candidacies. They are former speaker Heinz S. Hofschneider and Senate floor leader Ray Yumul (Ind-Saipan) as independents, and former Commonwealth Ports Authority executive director Edward “Tofila” M. Deleon Guerrero and former representative Daniel O. Quitugua of the Democratic Party.
At the Nov. 4 general elections, aside from the governor and lieutenant governor positions, voters will elect the delegate to the U.S. Congress, the Senate, the House of Representatives, mayors, municipal councils, and the Board of Education.
