by Ken Quintanilla

Guam - It appears the Guam Election Commission is cutting it close as it not only has less than two months until the Primary Election, but problems and questions have already surfaced relative to the ballot placement of independent candidates namely in the congressional race. It was these questions that led to lawmakers meeting this afternoon to amend the law.

During its meeting last Saturday, the GEC discovered it was faced with a major dilemma as how to place congressional independent candidate Jonathan Diaz on the Primary Election ballot. According to executive director Maria Pangelinan, public law left the GEC's hands tied, as it was to have both Republican and Democrat candidates on opposite sides of the ballot leaving independents in limbo.

According to Senator Chris Duenas via telephone, this whole issue could have been prevented as he not only tried to introduce an amendment addressing the issue in the election reform bill but also a stand alone measure in Bill 404. "The bill basically set up a situation where individuals wishing to run as an independent for elected office would simply have to garner a percentage of signatures of registered voters in order to be placed on the general election ballot thereby not having to participate in a party primary," he explained.

That bill, however, failed to garner enough support to pass.

Meanwhile, over the weekend, the GEC sent a letter to Diaz informing him of the problem along with Speaker Judi Won Pat. After meeting this morning in caucus, she ultimately decided to call for special session to address the issue saying the congressional race is the most critical as its not only a federal position but that a deadline approaches to send out absentee ballots in time. "We don't want them to stay we want to be able to proceed with the specific timeline so we wont have that problem with having any absentee ballots coming in late," she said.

The GEC is working with a tight deadline as they must also send out all final primary election ballots under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act by July 18 (45 days before the primary election).

On session floor this afternoon, election reform chair Senator Dennis Rodriguez, Jr. Introduced Bill 488, saying, "What this bill does is give authority to the Guam Election Commission if they certify a candidate who is independent then they can reconfigure the ballot to accommodate for that independent candidate."

He says the language was discussed during the Election Reform Bill - which is waiting for an override vote - and specifically lays out that any qualified candidate not members of any political party not registered with the GEC. For instance, the independent party, shall be placed on the ballot in three or more columns.

Bill 488 passed 11-0 with Senators Duenas, Ben Pangelinan, Tom Ada and Vice Speaker B.J. Cruz excused for being off-island. Minority Leader Frank Blas Jr. says the measure was ultimately a collaborative effort with all senators, noting, "This was an issue where politics did not play part of, we wanted to make sure every individual had the opportunity to participate in the democratic process."

According to the GEC, independent candidates need at least 10% of the total number of valid ballots cast to move forward to the general election. For Blas, seeking the Republican ticket for Congress, he would require 4% of the overall vote.