Gov. Benigno R. Fitial has asked the CNMI Election Commission to stop the ongoing registration of Northern Marianas descent, saying that allowing only those who are considered NMI descent to vote on the fate of Article 12 is a violation of the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n
In a letter to Commonwealth Elections Commission chairwoman Frances M. Sablan dated March 18, 2008, the CNMI\u2019s chief executive said he disagrees with the new voting registration procedure that seeks to implement the provisions of Article 18 (5)(c) of the CNMI Constitution and urged the commission to re-examine its approach to this problem. <\/p>\n
Election Commission executive director Gregorio Sablan said, though, that he would continue to conduct the voter registration unless told otherwise by the courts or the commission.<\/p>\n
The commission is currently conducting a registration process for all Northern Marianas descent in preparation for 2011, when CNMI voters go to the polls to vote whether to repeal, keep, or amend Article 12, which limits landownership in the CNMI exclusively to NMDs. <\/p>\n
Article 18 (5)(c) says that only NMDs can vote on this issue. Fitial is saying that this is a violation of the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am persuaded that this proposed distinction between United States citizens\u2014those swearing that they are of Northern Marianas descent and those who do not\u2014violates the United States Constitution,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
[B]Reasons for opposition[\/B]<\/p>\n
Fitial said his reasons for opposing this registration program are legal, political, and practical in nature. <\/p>\n
Fitial, who based his decision on the legal opinion of Howard P. Willens, his special legal counsel, said that U.S. courts have emphasized on several occasions the right to vote as one of the most important rights of citizens under the U.S. Constitution, \u201cand have invoked several constitutional provisions to prevent local governments from restricting this right in an arbitrary or discriminatory manner.\u201d<\/p>\n
He pointed out that the relevant provisions of the U.S. Constitution are made applicable to the Commonwealth under Section 501 of the Covenant. <\/p>\n
\u201cI am obligated under my oath of office\u2014as are all CNMI officials\u2014to uphold the provisions of the U.S. Constitution applicable to the Commonwealth. For this reason alone, I believe that the Commission\u2019s registration program seeking to acquire information regarding the status of voters relating to their qualifications to own land under Article 12 of the CNMI Constitution is inappropriate and should be discontinued,\u201d said Fitial in his letter to Sablan.<\/p>\n
Willens, who analyzed Article 18 (5)(c) with the help of Professor Ronald D. Rotunda of George Mason University in Virginia, said that the Commonwealth is entitled to limit the right to own land in the CNMI to persons considered Northern Marianas descent but the voting restrictions imposed by Article 12 (5)(c) would be invalidated by the courts if it were challenged under the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n
[B]Divisive[\/B]<\/p>\n
The governor also said that the new voting registration procedure is inherently divisive and limits the Commonwealth\u2019s sense of community and unity in dealing with the many problems it is currently facing. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs is apparent, we are in the third year of a serious economic depression and the Legislature and my administration are doing our best to reach agreement about how we allocate limited government revenues to provide essential public services to our citizens,\u201d he said.
\nFitial said the debate on who could vote on the fate of Article 12 would divide the island community at its most vulnerable time.<\/p>\n
The governor also pointed out that the administrative difficulties in applying this requirement as a basis for determining eligibility to vote is another reason why the commission should not proceed with the voter registration program. <\/p>\n
\u201cI am sure that the commission considered the potential problems that will certainly develop if this registration program continues in place. Relatively few Commonwealth voters understand the definition of Northern Marianas descent in Article 12 of the CNMI Constitution and the ease with which mistakes will be made as to which voters qualify and which do not.\u201d<\/p>\n
[B]Other issues[\/B]<\/p>\n
He said that even some members of the Commonwealth\u2019s business community are not qualified to be considered NMI descent because they happened to be in Guam in 1950 and became U.S. citizens at the time, thereby disqualifying them from ever achieving the TTPI citizenship, which is an element of the definition of Northern Marianas descent in Article 12. <\/p>\n
Fitial also pointed out that many younger voters may no longer meet the 25 percent criterion stated in Article 12 because of intermarriages over the past two generations in their families. <\/p>\n
Ditto for many well-established members of the Chamorro and Carolinian communities, who will have difficulty, if challenged, in identifying an ancestor who was either born or domiciled in the Northern Marianas by 1950 and either was, or later became, a TTPI citizen. <\/p>\n
Fitial told Sablan that he has asked his lawyers to provide the commission with an appropriate legal opinion setting forth reasons for concluding that Article 18 (5)(c) violates the U.S. Constitution. <\/p>\n
\u201cI wish to assure the commission that this administration\u2019s lawyers will represent and defend the commission if it elects to terminate this registration program and is sued as a result.\u201d<\/p>\n
[B]Urgent attention[\/B]<\/p>\n
CEC\u2019s Sablan that the commission is \u201cvery pleased\u201d that the issue on the Article 18 (5)(c), or voter registration requirement, is being given the attention that that it so \u201curgently deserves.\u201d <\/p>\n
Sablan said that the CEC and previous administrations have been \u201cwrestling\u201d with the issue since February 2000. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s eight years and three governors. But whether we like it or not, we cannot avoid what is in our Constitution unless the court tells the commission to do otherwise,\u201d Sablan said.<\/p>\n
According to him, \u201cpersonal feelings\u201d toward the voter registration requirement issue does not count. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhether I disagree with him [Fitial] or not, we do not ignore our Constitution just because we don\u2019t like it,\u201d Sablan said. <\/p>\n
He added that as executive director of the commission, he only takes orders and instructions from the commission. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe will continue to conduct voter registration as per Article 18 (5) (c) unless the commission or the court instructs me to do otherwise,\u201d Sablan said. <\/p>\n
Chairwoman Sablan could not be reached for comments as of press time. [B][I](With Rianne Pangelinan-Brown)[\/I][\/B]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gov. Benigno R. Fitial has asked the CNMI Election Commission to stop the ongoing registration of Northern Marianas descent, saying that allowing only those who are considered NMI descent to vote on the fate of Article 12 is a violation of the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121159\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}