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Navajo election postponed

Deschene

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – The top court on the largest Native American reservation ordered tribal election officials Thursday to postpone the Navajo Nation’s presidential election and immediately reprint ballots without the name of a candidate who was disqualified in a language fluency case.

The Navajo Supreme Court’s decision was the result of a petition to enforce a disqualification order against Chris Deschene, whose campaign was overshadowed by a debate about the role the Navajo language plays in the tribe’s culture and tradition.

A lower court had blocked Deschene from seeking the tribe’s top elected post after he refused to show whether he could speak Navajo fluently, a requirement for presidential candidates under tribal law.

Deschene appealed his disqualification, but the high court dismissed it Wednesday because he failed to file the proper documents.

The presidential election is scheduled for Nov. 4, but the Supreme Court said it must be postponed to ensure valid results.

“Decisions have to be made to provide finality to this dispute and to ensure a lawful election,” Chief Justice Herb Yazzie and Associate Justice Eleanor Shirley wrote.

Associate Justice Irene Black disagreed that the high court had jurisdiction over the petition, saying it should have first gone to a tribal district court.

Election officials met Thursday to determine the next steps and asked attorneys for clarification on the Supreme Court order, including whether the entire general election that includes a vote for Tribal Council delegates should be postponed or just the presidential election.

The disqualification order requires that the third-place finisher from the presidential primary be moved up to replace Deschene.

The Navajo Board of Election Supervisors is scheduled to reconvene Friday morning in Window Rock.

Absentee ballots giving voters a choice between Deschene and former President Joe Shirley Jr. have already gone out.

Deschene declared Wednesday that his campaign is not over. He said he’s looking to the Navajo Nation Council to keep it alive. Lawmakers have an emergency bill on their agenda this week to make voters the sole decision-makers when it comes to determining a presidential candidate’s fluency.



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