Defeated NI mayoral bet’s election contest dismissed

Superior Court Associate Judge Kenneth L. Govendo dismissed yesterday the election contest filed by defeated Northern Islands mayoral candidate Vicente Cruz Santos Jr. against mayor-elect Francisco Jerome K. Aldan and the Commonwealth Election Commission.

At a hearing that lasted less than five hours, Govendo ruled that the court lacks jurisdiction over the subject matter as Santos’ lawsuit was timely barred. The judge said he will issue a written order that contains more explanations today, Wednesday.

After the judge announced his decision, the beaming Aldan approached and shook hands with Santos, who is his uncle. Many NI voters from both Santos’ and Aldan’s camps watched the hearing.

In an interview, Aldan said the judge was correct in dismissing the case for its untimely filing. “This matter is more of a statutory legality contest,” Aldan said, adding that Santos failed to bring the complaint to the Superior Court in a timely manner.

Attorney Viola Alepuyo, counsel for Aldan, said they’re happy with Govendo’s ruling but that election challenges are very hard.

“It’s hard not just for the people being challenged but also hard for the person challenging,” Alepuyo said.

Santos’ counsel, Janet H. King, said they respect the proceedings but reserve their right to appeal. King said she will confer with Santos and see what they can do from here.

“What happened today is historic and important to the election process for individual voters to be able to challenge portions of the election. That’s why we’re here,” King said.

Govendo ruled that the court has no jurisdiction over the 40 voters’ challenge that Santos brought up in his election contest.

In granting Aldan’s and CEC’s motions to dismiss as to the voters’ challenge issue, Govendo said the election law has explicit rules for voter’s challenge.

Govendo said the Legislature’s intent was to expedite the election procedures as it was trying to avoid another election and get a system in place.

The judge said Santos filed a formal complaint before the CEC and it was denied, and he appealed and was denied.

Govendo said once the appellate board denies Santos’ appeal, he has five days to appeal to the Superior Court.

The judge said if Santos timely appealed it to the Superior Court, the court could have kept the questioned 40 votes set aside while the case is pending.

“The purpose of this procedure is to avoid another election. Election is costly. Northern Islands’ election is costly,” Govendo said.

The judge said even if the Nov. 4 election comes around, if Santos appealed to the court, the court could have set aside the challenged 40 votes while the election contest was pending. “Plaintiff did not do that. This claim is time barred,” Govendo pointed out.

He said Santos stated he knew about the 40 voters as early as September 2014. Govendo said Santos has seven days to file the election challenge after he learned either on Nov. 5 or 7 about the 40 voters allowed to vote, yet filed the complaint on Nov. 19.

“The court lacks jurisdiction. That’s why we have this law that has to be followed,” he said. Govendo said with the ruling, he wants to hear Santos’ challenge to Aldan’s candidacy.

Govendo asked attorney Janet H. King, counsel for Santos, to call her client to the witness stand and ask him why Aldan is not qualified to be a candidate.

King said before making argument she is asking the court to reconsider the ruling. But Govendo quickly stated he is not reconsidering his ruling as he has read and studied all the pleadings and heard the arguments.
Govendo said Santos’ allegations about Aldan not being eligible to run may also be time-barred so he wants to listen to Santos’ testimony.

Govendo asked King to limit the questioning as to when Santos did know that Aldan was not eligible to run.

The judge said he is interested as to when Santos first determined that Aldan is not qualified. Santos testified that he is from Alamagan and that Aldan just established his residency on Pagan three months ago.

Santos said when he saw Aldan in Pagan in May 2014 he already suspected that his nephew was going to run for mayor. Santos also disclosed that he had heard that Aldan would be running for mayor since 2012.

Santos said under the law, in order to be eligible to run, an NI voter needs to establish three years of residency prior to the election.

Alepuyo argued that at least on the Aug. 6 deadline to file for candidacy, Santos knew that Aldan was a candidate yet he did not file a timely complaint.

Alepuyo said his client should not be punished because Santos did not file a timely complaint.