Voters’ rights group protests court decision
Members of the Navajo Voter’s Rights Coalition met for the first time in February 2015 to air concerns on the Navajo Nation Supreme Court’s decision to move forward with the Presidential election. (Times photo-Stacy Thacker)
WINDOW ROCK
Under the canopy of a white tent, Anthony Allison told followers of the Navajo Voter’s Rights Coalition of his dissatisfaction with the political, electoral process on the Navajo Nation.
Allison, along with several outspoken allies of the coalition, addressed the 100 or so concerned citizens that claim approximately 40,000 to 50,000 votes were not counted during the Navajo Nation primary election. These thousands of votes, they claim, were discarded after grievances were filed that ultimately led to the removal of Christopher Clark Deschene from the general election ballot.
Deschene had finished second in the primary election, after Joe Shirley, Jr.
Members of the Navajo Voter’s Rights Coalition cheer and show their signs during a meeting where they voiced their concerns on the Navajo Nation Supreme Court’s decision to move forward with the presidential election. The voters met Feb. 21 in Window Rock. (Times photo-Stacy Thacker)
On Saturday, at the inaugural Navajo Voter’s Rights Coalition Convention, Allison wasn’t afraid to call the Navajo Nation Supreme Court’s latest decision on the election saga a “farce.”
Allison was responding to the high court’s Feb. 20 motion that ordered the Navajo Election Administration to hold the presidential election between Russell Begaye — the third-highest vote-getter in the primary — and Shirley as soon as possible. Later on Monday, Edison Wauneka, executive director for the NEA, notified the public via a Navajo Nation Council press release that the election between Begaye and Shirley is set for April 21.
In the same order, the court also invalidated two Navajo Nation Council resolutions – one that would have called for a new primary and general election and the other that pardoned former members of the Navajo Board of Election Supervisors that the court had removed.
The court also ordered the election for the six vacant election board positions to be held with the presidential election.
“He is a dictator,” Allison said about Navajo Nation Chief Justice Herb Yazzie.
Like many members of the incorporated Navajo Voter’s Rights Coalition, Allision believes that Yazzie manipulates both tribal statutory and Diné Fundamental Law to arrive at the high court’s decisions. It’s especially evident throughout what has become a controversial election, said Allison.
Adding to Allison’s rhetoric was Rebecca Nave Cling, of Tsaile, Ariz., who echoed that this election is indeed a farce, or satirical comedy.
“That’s such a farce, f-a-r-c-e!” exclaimed Cling about the high court’s decision to move forward with the election between Begaye and Shirley.
In her opinion, the chief justice is ruling from the bench and is similar in leadership and behavior to Vladimir Putin, president of Russia.
“Who is he to tell the Council delegates that they do not have this right to make laws?” Cling added. “If Shirley and Begaye care, they would let the people choose their leader.”
That leader, she said, is Deschene.
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