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[Direct Election of President and Vice
President]
[53.7% of the voters in the August 27, 2002, referendum voted
in favor of this amendment. A 75% affirmative vote was required to pass
the amendment, so the amendment failed.]
11. Committee Proposal No. 01-21:
This proposed amendment would amend Sections 1, 4, 5, and 6 of
Article X to require direct election of the FSM president and the vice
president. Currently, the FSM Congress elects the president and the vice
president from among its four at-large members. After the election, the
Speaker of the Congress declares vacant the seats formerly held by
president and vice president and special elections are held in the states
where the vacancies occurred.
Under this proposal, the president and the vice president will
be elected directly by the voters in the general election. It requires that
the president and the vice president shall be from different states and shall
run as a ticket. The winning ticket needs only a plurality of 40% of the total
votes cast. A run-off election is required if no ticket garner the require 40%
of the total votes cast. The minimum age requirement for presidential and vice
presidential candidates is 30 years and they must be legal residents of the
their respective states. The term "legal residents" is left
undefined in this proposal. It means that Congress will have to clarify it.
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This proposal defines "one presidential term" to
mean more than two years of service in office. Thus, if a president dies
before serving two years in office, he will not have deemed to serve a full
term. In this case, a special election will be held to fill the vacancy but
only legal residents of the deceased president’s state will be eligible to
run. On the other hand, if the president dies after serving more than two
years in office, the vice president will succeed him. After succeeding to the
office, the former vice president (and now president) will nominate a vice
president who will be subject to Congress approval.
This proposal contains an important element of presidential
rotation among the four states. This rotation process works in this fashion.
To wit, in the first election legal residents of all four states will be
eligible to run for president. In the second election, the residents of the
state that win the presidency in the first election will not be eligible to
run. This elimination process will continue until in the fourth election when
only the legal residents of the state that has not served in the presidency
will run. After the fourth election (and sixteen years later), the
rotation will start again.
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ANALYSIS:
Perhaps this proposal is the most significant of all the
proposed amendments that came out of the Constitutional Convention. For the
first time in the short history of our nation, this proposal will allow the
voters to exercise their God-given right to elect their president and vice
president. This proposal is not perfect, but it would be difficult to find a
perfect presidential electoral system in the world. For instance, in the last
presidential election in the United States, the loser of the popular votes
became the president and the winner became a part-time college professor.
The current method of electing the FSM president creates an
uneven check and balance between the two political branches of the national
government. The joke is that there is too much check and no balance in
the national government. This proposal seeks to correct this problem by taking
away the current congressional power to elect the president and the vice
president. Consequently, the Congress will no longer be the constituent of the
president. His constituents will be the voters who put him in office. Thus, the
president will not be politically accountable and responsible to the Congress.
His mandate to govern will be bestowed directly on him by the sovereign right of
the people to elect their leader. This will increase the power of the FSM
president vis-à-vis the Congress. In addition, the legitimacy of the presidency
will be enhanced and a genuine checks and balances between the two branches will
exist.
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The dynamics of the current system have politically marginalized
some of the states. For instance, Kosrae did not serve a full term in the
presidency. Additionally, it has no representation at all in the current
president’s cabinet. Now local politics seems to dictate the composition of
the president’s cabinet. In a nation with diversified constituent states, the
composition of the national cabinet must necessarily reflect that diversity. In
addition, every state must be treated equitably regardless of size. I am not
blaming anyone. I am merely pointing out the flaw of the current method of
electing the president. This proposal seeks to correct this shortcoming by
directing presidential politics toward a broader national constituency, instead
of narrow congressional and local constituencies.
The current arrangement would have worked if our political
system were fully developed. What I mean by this statement is that if politics
are based on political ideology and political parties are established to
aggregate and articulate national interest, then the present arrangement would
have worked. Popular election of the president and vice president might
eventually lead to establishment of political parties in this country.
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There is a genuine fear that in a direct election of the
president and vice president, voters in Chuuk will always decide the outcome.
This fear is not entirely unfounded, but I think the best way to deal with it is
to accept the fact that the large population of Chuuk will always make that
state a political force in any kind of elections. It is almost irrelevant in
our present discussion here because it does not really matter whether the
president and vice president are elected directly or elected by the Congress,
Chuuk will always have a big influence.
Another concern is that, in a direct election of the president
and the vice president, only the wealthy few can afford to run. I think we can
learn from other countries about campaign financing, and national government
contribution to candidates’ election effort.
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In deciding whether to vote for or against this proposal, the
voters must ask themselves these basic questions: (1) Should they deny
themselves their sovereign rights as citizens of the Federated States of
Micronesia to elect their president and vice president directly? (2) Are they
satisfied with the present arrangement, which allows the FSM Congress to elect
the president and the vice president?
© John R. Haglelgam, March 4, 2002
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