"The Navajo people in late 2009 voted in a referendum that sent a clear message: A majority of voters wanted the Navajo Council reduced from 88 members to 24.

That should have marked the end of the story right there, but as often tends to be the case with the Window Rock government, nothing is ever as simple as it should be.

Until two weeks ago and despite the vote, the Navajo Election Administration still was accepting applications for the current 88-member council. A judge has issued a restraining order to stop this, but none of the preliminary work to establish the 24-member council is done.

Meanwhile, President Joe Shirley Jr. and the council continue to snipe back and forth at each other.

Both sides are to blame for the attitude of hostility that has evolved between the legislative and executive branches, but the council has taken it to new heights. Since Navajo Attorney General Louis Denetsosise will not go along with their attempts to remove Shirley from power, they have started passing laws granting their own legislative counsel new authority to appoint special prosecutors and judges.

Keep in mind that all of this is to pursue charges of wrongdoing against Shirley that the attorney general has found to be insufficient, and charges that the council itself refuses to make public.

This has graduated from petty bickering into a full-blown constitutional crisis."

Get the Story:
Editorial: The people have spoken, so where's the change? (The Farmington Daily Times 5/2)

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