.
:
a ye
| managerial
intments of
d a District
Assistant to
a Deputy
' Resources
en assistant
to vote, the Government has disseminated information on registration,
voting procedures, dates of elections,
etc., through radio broadcasts and
meetings with local officials. Political
parties in the districts, as well as some
candidates, have also expended considerable effort in encouraging their
Supporters to register and vote.
The
High
Commissioner
issued
>
elections to the Congress of
!
orders to outline the conduct of the
first
‘
Micronesia in 1965. The Congress
1s are pre-
j
passed an act in 1966 providing
for
election of its members, which
was
signed as Public Law No. 2-16
and
later incorporatedinto the Code of
the
Trust Territory as Chapter 3A. Unde
r
this law all eligible persons desir
ing to
VOt€ must first register. A person
may
‘Tegister by executing an affidavi
t in
i meetings are held and, in someareas,
candidates are also beginning to visit
constituents in their homes.
To date organized, registered politi| cal parties are found only in the
Mariana Islands and Palau Districts.
The Mariana Islands District has two
} parties: the Popular Party and the
Territorial Party. An indication of
their strength is that in recent years no
candidate for public office has run
independently of the parties. In Palau,
Laas
act for all
yet to be
Which heidentifies his voting residenc
e
municipal and Swears that he
meets the qualificharters, C@tions prescribed by
law. Candidates
2882, as for the House of Repr
esentatives and
smust be the Senate may be
nominated either
or older, by petition or poli
tical party. All
ongths of elections of member
s of Congress are
or other >Y secret ballot, and
Public Law No.
rote. Dis- 2-16 provides for supe
rvision of pollon race, ng places, complaints
of irregularities
loes not 4ppeals from decision
s of election
officials, recounts of ballots,
and
absentee voting. Responsibility
for
‘eligible
‘ein the
eligible
ress of
gistered
‘scribed
‘lection
's. For
eligible
‘ported
Islands
ik fo
premium on modesty and, until fairly
recently, to actively campaign for
public office would have been a violation of such patterns. A candidate’s
reputation, position in the community, and traditional ties continue to
be important in obtaining public
support. Political campaigning in the
commonly understood sense began
about 8 years ago and has varied from
extremely
lively
campaigns in the
Mariana ”Islands” and Palau
Pala to more
sedate campaigns in other districts.
Candidates are given radio broadcast
time to describe their programs. Public
Warmer ween cae ONE eke
Micronesians
[ministrative
are covered
edule estab-
ek ne
aa jini, Be hank On, © Donteuas cebaetan
two parties, Liberal and Progressive,
have been active since 1963.
In the 1966 elections to the Congress of Micronesia, the parties of both
districts adopted platforms, nominated
slates of candidates, and conducted
vigorous pre-election campaigns.
>
Conducting the Congress elections
is
Vested in the district administ
rators,
who _ are
designated
election
In other districts, young men’s and
commissioners for their distr
icts, and
women’s groups and other groups
encourage the nomination of and
districts.
their choice.
0 boards of election of the 2] elec
tion
solicit support for the candidates of
|
|
POLITICAL ORGANIZAT
IONS
Traditional cultural patterns
in
most areas of the Territor
y placed a
Chapter 8
|
Le
)
Part V—Political Advanceme
nt
THE JUDICIARY
During the year the Judiciary
achieved a long-standing goal with the
appointment of a second Associate
Justice--the former Deputy Attorney
General of the Territory. Stationed in
Koror,
Palau
District,
elee ee
his
primary
judicial responsibility is for the Palau
and Yap Districts. The transfer of an
Associate Justice to American Samoa
left a vacancy which has beenfilled by
the former Attorney General of Guam.
The latter Associate Justice is stationed in Ponape with primary judicial
responsibility for the Ponape and Truk
Districts. In January 1968, the Chief
Justice retired after 22 years service to
the Trust Territory Judiciary. The
Attorney General of the Trust Territory was appointed by the Secretary
of the Interior as the new Chief Justice
and assumed duties on February 1,
1968. The retiring and the transferring
judges continued as Temporary Judges
beyond the end of the fiscal year to
complete work previously begun. A
Peace Corps Volunteer whois a retired
Judge of the Superior Court for Los
Angeles was appointed as a Temporary
Judge for 2 years. He is stationed in
Saipan but, as with all justices, his
service entails regular travel to all
district centers and a number of the
sub-district centers.
Types of Courts
The Territory has three types of
courts: the High Court, district courts,
and community courts.
High Court. The High Court consists of the Chief Justice, two Associate Justices, and a Temporary Justice, and a panel of three temporary
judges. At present they are all U.S.
lawyers appointed by the Secretary of
the Interior and employed under U.S.
Civil Service laws for full-time judicial
work. Currently the members of the
panel of temporary judges are the
Presiding Judge of the District Court
of Guam and two of the senior judges
of the Island Court of Guam.
27
Fiscal Year 1968
I
ha
Pa I me capeI ROR Ee
+
37