BY BILL DONOVAN
SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
WINDOW ROCK — The Jan. 24 referendum on the question of taking funds from the permanent trust fund for road construction has been put on hold indefinitely.
Kimmeth Yazzie, who has been delegated the position of acting director of the tribal election office, said Tuesday the referendum had to be cancelled because his office did not have the funds to pay for the ballots.
“The printer will not print the ballots without having the money,” he said, adding that while the Navajo Nation Council had approved the allocation back in December, it had been vetoed by Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye.
This means that the election office is technically violating Navajo law since the law requires that once a referendum is called by the tribal council, it has to be held within 60 days or by the end of January.
“We’ll already be violating the law,” said Yazzie, “since we were supposed to have absentee voting started by December 26.”
Postponing a tribal election is not an unusual event within the Navajo Nation. The last presidential race on the reservation was set and cancelled at least three times before it was finally held.
However, in this case it is different, because no new date has been set and can’t be until the funding is approved and signed off by Begaye.
The council is scheduled to come into session on Monday and may address the issue by passing a new resolution which, if not vetoed by Begaye, would require the referendum to be held by the end of March or early April.
Another issue that also has to be resolved eventually is who will replace Edison Wauneka as head of the election office, a position that has become one of the most controversial positions within the tribal government in recent years.
Wauneka stepped down as election director on Dec. 31 to take over the elected position of Apache County recorder. At the time no one had been chosen to take his place.
Wauneka had recommended Yazzie for the position, pointing out that he had worked for the office for 35 years and was responsible for the office’s computer programming of election results in election night.
But the personnel office rejected the recommendation, Wauneka said, stating that Yazzie was not qualified.
After Wauneka stepped down, however, and there was no one replacing him until a permanent director was appointed, Yazzie said Speaker of the Council Lo Renzo Bates stepped up and selected Yazzie to keep the office going.
The process to get applicants for the position began this week and Yazzie said he was hoping that a new director would be appointed within 60 to 90 days.