judge rules
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Palau defeat, judge rules
The Compact of Free Associa tion between Palau and the Un ited States which was voted on last February was defeated, ruled Judge Robert A. Hefner of the Palau Supreme Court, in August.
In the plebiscite, the Palau people approved one part of the ballot but a majority voted against the nuclear section on the second section of the ballot.
The Pacific Daily News quoted Palau Ambassador Lazarus E. Salii as saying Judge Hefner ruled the two parts of the ballot were inseparable.
Thus when a majority of vo ters rejected the section of the ballot which would allow nuclear and toxic substances in Palau, they rejected the entire compact, the ruling said.
The suit was filed in May by Palau High Chief Ibedul Yutaka Gibbons and six senators asking that the Compact be declared not approved. The suit also alleges Palau President Haruo I. Re meliik, Vice-President Alfonso Oiterong, Salii and Minister of Administration Haruo Wilter misspent $230,000 in public funds to “wrongfully influence
the plebiscite.”
The senators who joined Gib bons in the lawsuit are Moses Uludong, Kuniwo Nakamura, Johnson Toribiong, Edobo Temengiil, Joshua Koshiba and
Peter Sugiyama.
With Hefner’s ruling, the trea ty signed in July by Salii and Zeder in an attempt to resolve the nuclear dilemma when the voters rejected the nuclear section in the plebiscite is now moot, said Salii and Smith.
The second part of the suit, which alleges that money was misspent, was not addressed in the ruling. It will be resolved in a later hearing, PDN said.