Inauguration of 23rd Navajo Council, Education Board, Election Board over

Here at Inauguration of 23rd Navajo Nation Council, Navajo Board of Election Supervisors, and Navajo Board of Education at the Window Rock High School Fighting Scouts Events Center in Fort Defiance, Ariz.

Dr. Jennifer Denetdale, associate professor at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, gave the inaugural address and sprinkled among her talk was her support for disqualified presidential candidate Christopher Clark-Deschene and his supporters, who call themselves the “disenfranchised voters” because they believe that the disqualification of Clark-Deschene for lying on his presidential qualification affidavit and swearing that he spoke the Navajo language fluently nullified their votes for him during the primary election.

Clark-Deschene came in second during the primaries in August 2014. Former President Joe Shirley Jr. took first place. Shirley and Clark-Deschene were facing each in the General Election in August 2014 until Clark-Deschene was disqualified, which moved third place runner-up, Russell Begaye into second place.

But a bitter political bat12, 2tle by Clark-Deschene and his supporters, which included the now defunct Navajo Board of Election Supervisors and the 22nd Navajo Nation Council, resulted in no inauguration of a president because there was no presidential election.

The political battle of Clark-Deschene and his supporters was fought in the Navajo Supreme Court resulted in the Supreme Court ordering the Election Office Director Edison Wauneka to hold a special presidential election before the end of January 2015, holding the Election Board in contempt of their order to comply with the Navajo Office of Hearings and Appeals disqualification of Clark-Deschene and remove Clark-Deschene’s name from the General Election ballot, and ordering Clark-Deschene and the Election Board to pay for the legal fees of former presidential candidates Dale Tsosie and Hank Whitethorne, who filed the initial grievance against Clark-Deschene for lying on his presidential candidacy affidavit.

And on Jan. 12, Tsosie and Whitethorne filed a contempt of court petition with the Navajo Nation Supreme Court against 11 members of the Council and Wauneka for blocking the holding of special presidential election between Shirley and Begaye before the end of January.

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