Navajo Council approves legislation to hold special presidential run-off, general elections next summer

The Navajo Nation Council on Wednesday approved a special run-off election to be followed by a general election, scheduled for next summer, to determine who will be the new president and vice president of the Navajo Nation, according to the Navajo Times.

The council voted 11-1, with Charles Damon II as the sole vote against, to hold the run-off election on June 2, 2015. All 17 of the original candidates who ran in this year’s primary would be qualified to be in the run-off election, including embattled candidate Chris Deschene.

Those 17 candidates will have their $1500 filing fee waived; new candidates will still have to pay it.

The special general election would then take place on August 4, and the new president will be sworn in in September if all goes according to plan.

President Ben Shelly has ten calendar days to approve the motion. He would also have to approve another piece of legislation passed by the council Wednesday that seeks to pardon and reinstate the nine members of the Navajo Board of Election Supervisors who were removed from their positions after being found in contempt of court by the Navajo Supreme Court earlier this year.

The elections bill would also provide around $317,000 to the Election Administration to fund the special elections.

Tuesday, Deschene filed a motion with the Navajo Office of Hearings and Appeals to void the order that disqualified him from being president in the first place.