Edith Deleon Guerrero
SENATE President Edith Deleon Guerrero on Monday prefiled Senate Legislative Initiative 23-3, which would include on this year’s election ballot the question, “Shall there be a constitutional convention to propose amendments to the Constitution?”
The last time the question was presented to CNMI voters was in 2005 when 7,394 voted in favor of a constitutional convention while 5,156 voted against it. S.L.I. 23-3, however, failed to garner the required two-thirds affirmative vote.
The last time the CNMI had a constitutional convention was in 1995. All its 19 proposed amendments failed to garner the required number votes for ratification.
After almost 30 years since the last constitutional convention, S.L.I. 23-3 states that it “is now necessary to present the question once again to the voters.”
According to S.L.I. 23-3, a constitutional convention “may be convened by two methods: legislative initiative and popular initiative. Both methods require that the question of convening a constitutional convention be approved by the voters.”
S.L.I. 23-3 also noted that Section 3, Article XVIII of the CNMI Constitution states that the Legislature, “by the affirmative vote of three-fourths of the members of each house present and voting, may propose amendments to this Constitution…. An act of the legislature under this section may not be vetoed by the governor.”
