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CEC to certify poll results today
Kayla S. Igitol
The Commonwealth Election Commission board is expected to certify today, Friday, the tabulation results of the Nov. 8 general elections.
CEC executive director Kayla S. Igitol said yesterday that the board meeting will be held at the Pedro P. Tenorio Multi-Purpose Center in Susupe at 3pm to certify the 2022 general elections results.
Igitol said the board will also discuss the early voting and absentee voting period for the runoff election. She said the board will decide on when the runoff election will take place.
“If you didn’t vote in the 2022 general elections as a registered voter, it doesn’t disqualify you in the runoff election,” she said.
However, Igitol said, if a person is an inactive voter already since before the Nov. 8, 2022 general elections, that individual cannot vote in the runoff election.
Inactive voters are those who failed to vote in two successive general elections.
As for absentee voters, Igitol said that once they received absentee request forms for the 2022 forms, the CEC will automatically mail out to them their runoff ballots.
Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and his running mate, Sen. Vinnie Vinson F. Sablan (R-Saipan), of the Republican Party, and Lt. Gov. Arnold I. Palacios and his running mate, Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang, of the unified independent team, will square off in the runoff election.
Torres-Sablan won the general elections, but failed to gain a majority share of the votes, paving the way for a runoff race against Palacios-Apatang.
Torres-Sablan received 5,726 votes, or 38.83% of the total votes cast and counted. Palacios-Apatang received 4,890 votes, or 33.16% of the total votes cast and counted.
A total of 99 candidates, including those in the gubernatorial, ran in the general election to occupy 48 positions in the CNMI.
