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Inos-Torres certified winner
Official counting shows Inos-Torres lead with a 1,744 margin
The Commonwealth Election Commission board certified Friday night the election results of the Nov. 21 gubernatorial runoff, declaring Republican standard-bearer Gov. Eloy S. Inos and Ralph DLG Torres the winner over independent Heinz S. Hofschneider-Ray N. Yumul with a big 1,744 margin.
The CEC board, chaired by Frances M. Sablan, unanimously approved the election results shortly after the counting of absentee ballots at the Pedro P. Tenorio Multi-purpose Center in Susupe.
The Inos-Torres tandem, which already enjoyed a commanding 1,599-lead, garnered 330 more votes from the absentee ballots while Hofschneider-Yumul got only 185 votes.
CEC’s official results of the runoff race show that Inos-Torres garnered a total of 6,877 votes, while Hofschneider-Yumul got 5,133.
Of the estimated 2,100 absentee ballots mailed out, only 794 came back, but only 515 were found good and the rest of the ballots were rejected.
There were actually 823 ballots that came in but some were for the general elections, according to CEC executive director Robert Guerrero during the sorting of the ballots.
As of 5:30pm Friday, election workers were still sorting and checking the ballots.
Guerrero announced the counting results at 8:34pm.
The CEC board then convened a meeting and unanimously certified the gubernatorial election results at 8:43pm.
Only a few people watched the counting. The Inos-Torres team had no representative, while the Hofschneider-Yumul had one.
During the Nov. 4 four-way gubernatorial elections, Inos-Torres garnered a total of 6,342 votes, while the Hofschneider-Yumul came second with a total of 4,501.
Inos-Torres’ 1,841 margin over Hofschneider-Yumul paved the way for the second runoff election in the CNMI last Nov. 21.
After the counting of ballots for the Nov. 4 general elections, defeated gubernatorial candidates Juan N. Babauta (independent) and Edward M. Deleon Guerrero (Democrat) immediately conceded and endorsed Inos-Torres for the runoff race.
This is Hofschneider’s fourth failed attempt to become a governor of the CNMI. This year is also his second defeat in a gubernatorial runoff race.
Hofschneider won the general elections in 2009, but failed to gain a majority, paving a runoff against then-incumbent governor Benigno R. Fitial. Fitial eventually won the runoff by a margin of 370 votes.
