Speaker touts open primary as fix to runoff woes

House Speaker Joseph P. Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan) wants the Commonwealth Election Commission to ditch runoff elections and use an open primary instead to determine the next CNMI governor.

He plans to introduce a bill addressing the lapses of the current process of electing the islands’ chief executive, which saw less than a third of off-island absentee ballots mailed out for the runoff eventually counted by the CEC.

“I’m proposing there would be a primary election for all wanting to run for governor in September. It’s for anyone and it’s called an open primary. So if there are five candidates in September and people get to vote who will be the top 2. Theoretically it could be two GOP candidates who get the Top 2 and whoever is the Top 2 will run in the general election. Basically the general elections will be the end as someone will already emerge as governor,” Deleon Guerrero told Saipan Tribune.

Under this proposal, the CEC will conduct the open primary two months before the general elections.

Deleon Guerrero said holding the open primary in September would give the two winning candidates in the primary ample time to campaign as well as court the supporters of the losing contenders in the primary “giving them enough time align to whoever the top 2 are.”

Another advantage on the open primary, the speaker said, is CEC would no longer need to conduct two elections if the No. 1 in the gubernatorial race doesn’t get 50 percent plus one of the votes during the general elections. He said this will also lead to cost savings not only in the part of CEC but the government as well.

“There’s enough time and enough time for the off-island absentee votes also. So in the general election they send out the off-island absentee ballots and once they come in it’s already final. They don’t have to wait for two weeks, as there would be no runoff,” he said.

Deleon Guerrero said he doesn’t want a repeat of what happened in the 2014 runoff election for governor where only 515 off-island absentee ballots were counted out of the more than 2,100 originally sent out by CEC.

“I think the absentee voters were deprived in a way because there was almost not enough time. This is what this bill plans to address, to give our off-island voters ample time to be able to decide. I saw the news and I read what the governor said but he doesn’t know I already have a bill. I’ve been hearing reports from off-island. First of all, the time line is just not enough. CEC has to prepare ballots and send them and get it back. It’s nobody’s fault, it’s just the postal system that we have no control off. This bill should take care of that issue. We really need to fix it and we will fix it,” he added.

Rep. Ramon Tebuteb (Ind-Saipan) seconded Deleon Guerrero’s call for reform in the runoff process. He said he would support the speaker’s bill.

“I’m good with it. I will support the speaker’s bill. Do we really have control of that [postal system]? The CEC really tried its best to send it out in time but given those factors, we figure that time [14-day requirement] was really difficult.”

Inos on Friday lamented the low number of off-island absentee ballots that were received by absentee voters and the low number of ballots that were eventually received by the CEC. He called on the Legislature to amend the current law governing the runoff election so off-island absentee voters will not be deprived of their right to vote in future elections.