Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Pechanga Elections: A FIRST in Many Years: No Terminations

There are 18 days left until the elections. No, not those elections. The elections for the Pechanga Tribal Council will be held on July 19th.

Since the passage of the Tribe’s Constitution and Bylaws, Tribal Council have been held on the 3rd Saturday of July in every even year. That being said, what makes the upcoming elections special is the fact that these elections are the first in several elections cycles in which over 100 Pechanga tribal members have not been disenrolled just prior to casting their ballot.

Just in case you forgot, in 2004, over 200 tribal members were disenrolled prior to the Constitutionally mandated elections. As a result, there was almost a complete over-haul of the Tribal Council and Chairman Macarro retained his seat.

In 2006, just prior to the elections, nearly 100 eligible voters were stripped of their tribal membership, and as a result, their right to participate in tribal elections was denied. The disenrollment of these members was especially egregious as the tribe had passed a law in 2005 barring future disenrollments.

Chairman Macarro and the Tribal Council saw the enactment of the law by the General Membership as a threat to their continued membership on the Council and unilaterally decided to direct the Enrollment Committee to proceed with disenrollment action.

Unlike previous elections, it appears that the 2008 Tribal Council elections will not be held under a cloud of suspicion. It also appears so far that the results of the elections may not be impacted by gross human and civil rights which deny 100’s of eligible voters from participating.

But, then again, there are still 18 days to go, and anything can happen.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm afraid every election that occurs without the votes of those dis-enrolled is held under a cloud of suspicion, not unlike the re-election of Mugabe in Zimbabwe or elctions in Pakistan after the asassination of Bhutto.
Somehow I think it wise for those dis-enrolled to cast some sort of ballots and publish the results, combining the validated ballots with those of the dis-enrolled voters. This establishes a continued participation as a citizen, even if it is not validated by the current government.
Allen L. Lee

stand your ground said...

Since Pechanga disenrolled all the Hunters and the Apish they don't have a thing to worry about. The corruption will go on and the newly elected official's will be just as corrupt as the last batch of head hunters. The remaining tribal members are in fear of the corupted ones and some of them are firm in their belief that the disenrollments where justified. See what happens when you try to explain to them what really went down in those disenrollment meetings....