Electoral Dispute In Micronesia

Work of the inaugural meeting of the Fourth Congress of Mlcr °~ nesia, in Saipan , was delayed in January as a result of a dispute over the credentials of some of the members for Palau.

A special Senate committee later recommended that the election of Senator Roman Tmetuchi, of Palau, in the general elections of last November, be declared null and void. It also recommended that the government thoroughly investigate alleged irregularities in the Palau elections. , £ At the November elections tor Congress the Liberal Party won all four of Palau’s contested seats three for the Representatives and one for the Senate. The Progressive Party immediately petitioned the election commissioner to declare the elections void, alleging that votes had been tampered with and some people had voted illegally.

The complaints went to the High Court, which said that it was “abundantly clear that there were serious and numerous irregularities in the election”, but that the sole judge of the qualifications of mem bers was the Congress of Micro nesia itself.

The dispute held up the swearing in of the Palau delegation, but did

not prevent the election of Senator Amata Kabua (Marshalls), as Sen ate President, and Rep. Bethwel Henry (Ponape), as Speaker of the House. They had held these posts in the previous Congress.

Speaking to the Micronitor, in Majuro, Marshall Islands, in Janu ary, Mr. John Dorrance, formerly with the US Embassy in Canberra and now special adviser to the TT High Commissioner, said he thought that when Micronesians fin ally decided what form their poli tical future would take, it would probably be some form of associa tion with Washington, and that cer tainly Washington wanted some form of association. But free as sociation was not there for the ask ing—because the US had to gam something from the association as well as Micronesia.

He could not see that the matter could finally be resolved and put into effect in less than a “couple of years at the earliest”, but it could be much longer.