BOE to tally 409 more votes • Candidates with close margins may still see reversal of fortune By MAR-VIC CAGURANGAN

For some candidates, the election is not yet over until it’s over. The Board of Elections has yet to tally 409 ballots from absentee voters, and candidates with narrow margins may not be far from exchanging fates.

BOE Executive Director Gregorio Sablan said the board will tally the remaining votes on Friday, and then finalize the official returns by next week. The tabulation will be held at 1:00 p.m.. at the Multi-Purpose Building in Susupe.

“The board will meet after the tabulation on Friday to certify the results. We’ll get the official figures out and announce the official winners,” Sablan said.

About 10,900 election returns have been tabulated after Saturday’s elections. Voters turnout was about 80 percent of the total number of registered voters in the CNMI.

Sablan said the board mailed 624 ballots to CNMI voters who live outside the Commonwealth — many of them students enrolled at colleges and universities in the mainland.

The BOE chief said that among the ballots mailed back to the board, only 409 were considered valid. “The rest were invalidated because the voters failed to follow instructions,” Sablan explained.

Sablan said he could not say if the final tally would change the preliminary results of the Nov. 6 polls. “I don’t want to make any prediction,” he said.

Unofficial tally from Saturday’s elections showed unsuspected results such as the successful bid of Reform Party candidate Ramon S. Guerrero to dislodge Saipan’s incumbent Republican Sen. Juan P. Tenorio, and the defeat of seven House incumbents.

However, victory is in danger of slipping away from candidates with uncomfortable leads. Those right below them face the prospect of catching the luck after all.

In District 1, for example, Antonio Muna Camacho made it to the magic six by a leading margin of 71 votes against incumbent Republican Rep. Ana Teregeyo, who ranked seventh.

Camacho garnered 1,299 votes, and Teregeyo, 1,228.

Ranking eighth is incumbent Republican Rep. Manuel A. Tenorio, who got 1,209 votes.

In District 3, sixth placer William S. Torres, former education commissioner, is leading over incumbent Democrat Rep. Maximo Olopai by 54 votes.

Most of the absentee voters are students under the government’s scholarship program, and according to political observers, they are likely to have voted for candidates — incumbents or otherwise — who have asserted support for scholarship programs.

Partial results in Rota show write-in candidate Juanita Taisacan beating incumbent Board of Education member Marja Lee Taitano by 12 votes.

“Right now, everything is unofficial. The board will decide after seeing the final results,” Sablan said.