| Country: | Northern Mariana Islands | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Election Date: | 5 November 2005 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 2005 Northern Mariana Islands general election was held on Saturday, 5 November 2005. Voters in the Northern Mariana Islands voted for the Governor of the Northern Mariana Islands, the non-voting delegate to the United States House of Representatives, attorney general, 6 seats in the Northern Mariana Islands Senate, all eighteen seats in the Northern Mariana Islands House of Representatives, 3 mayors, seats for the municipal council, seats for the board of education, 2 justices, and a judges. There was also a referendum on calling a Constitutional Convention,[1] which was approved by voters.[2]
The gubernatorial election was theclosest in the commonwealth's history, and resulted in the election of Benigno Fitial, narrowly defeating independent Heinz Hofschneider by 84 votes and incumbent Republican Governor Juan N. Babauta by an additional 98 votes. This would be the last year that the gubernatorial race would work in a first-past-the-post voting system as it would be reformed to work under a two-round system for the 2009 general elections.[3] This election made commonwealth history by electing both the territory's first Carolinian governor and its first third party governor.[4]
The referendum on the Constitutional Convention was called in order to comply with Chapter XVIII, article 2 of the constitution, which required a referendum to be held at least every ten years on convening such a convention.[2] A referendum had been due in 2003 as the last referendum had been in 1993, but the legislature had failed to organise it.[2]
15,118 people registered with the Election Commission to vote.[5]
Four candidates ran for governor, each with a running mate:
|- style="background:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;"!colspan="2" rowspan="2" style="text-align:left;" | Party!rowspan="2" style="text-align:left;" | Candidate!rowspan="2" style="text-align:left;" | Running mate!colspan="2" | Results |- style="background:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;"!width="60" | Votes!width="30" | % |- |style="background:" | |style="text-align:left;" | Covenant |style="text-align:left;" | Benigno Repeki Fitial |style="text-align:left;" | Timothy Pangelinan Villagomez | |% |- |style="background:" | |style="text-align:left;" | Independent |style="text-align:left;" | Heinz Sablan Hofschneider |style="text-align:left;" | David Mundo Apatang | |% |- |style="background:" | |style="text-align:left;" | Republican |style="text-align:left;" | Juan Nekai Babauta (incumbent) |style="text-align:left;" | Diego Tenorio Benavente (incumbent) | |% |- |style="background:" | |style="text-align:left;" | Democratic |style="text-align:left;" | Froilan Cruz "Lang" Tenorio |style="text-align:left;" | Antonio Aguon Santos | |% |- |colspan="6" style="background:#E9E9E9" | |-!colspan="4" style="text-align:left;" | Total!!100% |- |colspan="6" style="background:#E9E9E9" | |-
This was the last election to have Resident Representative to U.S. Congress. In 2008, the Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008, signed into law by President George W. Bush, replaced the position of resident representative with a nonvoting delegate to the House of Representatives. The new position received the power to serve in congressional committees, to introduce bills, and to vote on proposed legislation in committee, but still had limited powers on the House floor, lacking the right to vote on legislation on the House floor.
The Northern Mariana Islands Senate is the upper house of the Northern Mariana Islands Commonwealth Legislature, consisting of nine senators representing three senatorial districts (Saipan & the Northern Islands, Tinian & Aguijan, and Rota), each a Multi-member district with three senators. Six seats in the Northern Mariana Islands Senate were up for the 2005 election.
The Northern Mariana Islands House of Representatives is the lower house of the Northern Mariana Islands Commonwealth Legislature. The house has six districts, several of which are Multi-member districts.[7] All 18 seats in the Northern Mariana Islands House of Representatives were contested in the 2005 election. This was the last election to have 18 members.
Three mayoral posts were up for election across the Commonwealth. The elections resulted in the Covenant Party taking all the available positions.
Both Supreme Court Justices won retention.
| Justice | For retention | Against retention | Total | - !Votes | % !Votes | % | - | Alexandro Cruz Castro✅ | 10,144 | 80.43% | 2,468 | 19.57% | 12,612 | - | Miguel Sablan Demapan✅ | 8,704 | 68.77% | 3,953 | 31.23% | 12,657 | - | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Judge | For retention | Against retention | Total | - !Votes | % !Votes | % | - | David Arthur Wiseman✅ | 8,835 | 71.41% | 3,538 | 28.59% | 12,373 | - | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Constitutional Convention Question | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
| For | 7,394 | 58.92 |
| Against | 5,156 | 41.08 |
| Invalid/blank votes | – | |
| Total | 12,550 | 100 |
| Registered voters/turnout | 15,118 | |
| align=left colspan=3 | Source: Direct Democracy |