Sablan: Local law will apply to NMI congressional delegate poll

By Emmanuel T. Erediano Variety News Staff

CURRENT commonwealth election law will apply to the election of the CNMI’s first nonvoting delegate seat to the U.S. Congress.

The U.S. congressional bill extending federalization law to the islands and creating a CNMI delegate seat is expected to become law before the federal elections in November.

Commonwealth Election Commission Executive Director, Gregorio Sablan said the election of the CNMI congressional delegate will be considered a local election for a federal office.

The candidates’ statements of accounts this time will be reported to federal authorities and not to the local election commission.

“We have been looking into this for sometime now and if the (federalization law) becomes law, the election for the CNMI delegate will coincide with the federal elections on Nov. 4.”

He said it is up to the political parties to decide whether to hold primaries or not.