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CEC is prepared in case of a runoff election
825 voted yesterday in the CNMI
Kayla S. Igitol
Commonwealth Election Commission executive director Kayla S. Igitol said Tuesday that they are prepared in case of a runoff election for the top two gubernatorial candidates.
Igitol also said last night that 730 voted at the Pedro P. Tenorio Multi-Purpose Center in Susupe, Saipan, on Wednesday, 37 on Tinian, and 58 on Rota, for a total of 825 votes. Yesterday was the second day of the seven-day early voting period in the CNMI.
Igitol said the CEC board will decide on the date for a runoff race if it comes to that. A runoff election is usually held 14 days after the CEC board certifies the election results.
Igitol said the CEC will hold a runoff election if no gubernatorial candidate gets more than 50%, or more than half, of the total votes cast and counted.
She said the two top vote getters will go head to head at the runoff election.
Igitol said they anticipate that there will be runoff election in this election.
There was no runoff election at the Nov. 6, 2018, general election, because only two teams ran for governor and lieutenant governor. Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and his running mate, then-Senate President Arnold I. Palacios, won over former governor Juan N. Babauta and his running mate, former Public School System commissioner Dr. Rita A. Sablan, by a huge margin.
During the Nov. 4, 2014, four-way general elections, Eloy S. Inos and his running mate, Ralph DLG Torres, garnered a total of 6,342 votes, while the tandem of Heinz S. Hofschneider and Ray N. Yumul came second with a total of 4,501 votes. This paved the way for the second runoff election in the CNMI on Nov. 21, 2014.
Hofschneider won the general elections in 2009, but failed to gain a majority, paving a runoff against then-incumbent governor Benigno R. Fitial. Finial eventually won the runoff by a margin of 370 votes.
