{"id":115218,"date":"2015-01-15T18:46:59","date_gmt":"2015-01-16T01:46:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/navajo-president-sworn-in\/"},"modified":"2015-01-15T18:46:59","modified_gmt":"2015-01-16T01:46:59","slug":"navajo-president-sworn-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/navajo-president-sworn-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Navajo president sworn in"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Navajo
Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly was sworn in as president of the Navajo Nation on Tuesday to continue as the tribe\u2019s top leader, even though he badly lost his re-election bid. That\u2019s because the presidency of the country\u2019s largest Native American reservation is in limbo over a disputed election. Shelly will be president until the election dispute gets sorted.<\/span>Alexa Rogals\/The Associated Press<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

FLAGSTAFF, Arizona \u2013 The president of the Navajo Nation was sworn in Tuesday to continue as the tribe\u2019s top leader \u2013 even though he badly lost his re-election bid.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because the presidency on the country\u2019s largest Native American reservation is in limbo over an election that hasn\u2019t been scheduled. As a result, Ben Shelly will remain president until the mess gets sorted.<\/p>\n

Shelly\u2019s inauguration was low-key and closed to the public and media. He didn\u2019t give a speech or outline priorities for the indefinite time he and Vice President Rex Lee Jim will serve, said his adviser, Deswood Tome.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s going to be the caretaker of the government so there is business as usual,\u201d Tome said. \u201cAnd all ongoing projects that are already vetted are the ones he\u2019s going to superintend to get some of those completed before he leaves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tribal lawmakers were sworn in during a public ceremony in Fort Defiance that was broadcast live online. Speakers at the event hardly mentioned the presidential election that was thrown into turmoil after Chris Deschene, one of the winners in last August\u2019s primary, was disqualified in a language-fluency case.<\/p>\n

Russell Begaye survived a challenge to his qualifications to replace Deschene and face Joe Shirley Jr. in a general election.<\/p>\n

The tribe\u2019s high court mandated that the election be held by Jan. 31. But Shelly and lawmakers approved a do-over allowing all previous 17 primary election candidates to face off in a special election in June. The top two vote-getters would move on to the August general election, and the new president would take the oath of office in September.<\/p>\n

Tome said Shelly wouldn\u2019t run again, considering his seventh-place finish in the primary.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear whether the election will move forward as Shelly and the lawmakers planned. Attorneys for the men who challenged Deschene asked the Navajo Nation Supreme Court late Monday to reaffirm the January election date and hold the elections director and tribal lawmakers who voted for the special election in contempt of court.<\/p>\n

Some lawmakers disagree with the high court\u2019s rulings, saying they have disenfranchised thousands of Navajo voters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

election dispute needs to be sorted<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":115219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5735,6212],"tags":[266,561],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-115218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-state-nation-world","tag-election","tag-native-american"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115218"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=115218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}