The answer may become clearer next month when Hawaiians meet to debate the sovereignty effort started by the native Hawaiian vote.

The Hawaiian Sovereignty Elections Council, which will disband Dec. 31, is looking for feedback from Hawaiian groups on who should be in charge of electing delegates to discuss Hawaiian sovereignty.

The council is holding a conference on Dec. 14 at the Blaisdell Center.

The meeting follows the Sept. 11 vote to call for the election of delegates to discuss sovereignty.

While council members say the vote shows Hawaiians are ready for the next step toward self-determination, Ka Lahui Hawaii - which asked voters to boycott the mail-in ballots - contends that the small turnout means Hawaiians want Ka Lahui to oversee the rest of the sovereignty process.

Of the 82,000 ballots sent out, 33,023 were returned: 22,294 said yes, 8,129 said no and another 2,600 were spoiled ballots.

Furthermore, other groups charge that the vote was a mockery of democracy and fairness, and that it jeopardized true sovereignty.

"We won the fight over the plebiscite," said Haunani-Kay Trask, Ka Lahui spokeswoman. "Over 60 percent of the potential voting population vetoed by not participating - and that was the Ka Lahui's position to the general public."

"We are going into that meeting on Dec. 14 saying we have the leadership, not you. The Hawaiian public has given us the leadership nod by following our suggestion to boycott and we want our position to be the lead position," said Trask.

But Poka Laenui, a member of the election council, says Ka Lahui is twisting the facts. Laenui, also known as Hayden Burgess, said that if the silent majority of Hawaiians did listen to the group and boycott the native Hawaiian vote, where are all the unchecked ballots they were supposed to send to Ka Lahui to protest the vote?

"The reason the majority is silent is in itself the answer to that question," Laenui said. "You cannot speak for anybody that is silent."

The 20-member council is expected to recommend to conference attendees that Ha Hawaii, a nonprofit organization created by the election council staff and councilmembers, serve as the transition agency once the council delivers its final report to the state Legislature.

Ha Hawaii was created last year after Gov. Ben Cayetano and state lawmakers urged the election council to raise at least a third of funds through private sources, in part to show Hawaiians themselves were committed to raising funds, said its president, Allen Hoe. The group - officially the Hawaiian Sovereignty Council - can only use funds it receives for educational purposes.

Hoe said it will be up to those at the conference to determine its role, as well as the method on electing delegates to discuss sovereignty. The delegates would then determine a model of sovereignty to be worked out at a Hawaiian constitutional convention.

"It's there, it's in place, and it has the potential, but the Hawaiian people really need to determine the role Ha Hawaii will play," said Hoe.

Meanwhile, Jose Luis Morin, an international human rights lawyer who is in Hawaii working with Kekuni Blaisdell of the sovereignty group Ka Pakaukau, said the result shows that the election council does not have the mandate of the Hawaiian people and has not built a consensus.

Nevertheless, Morin said the vote is important because it positioned the election council and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to become the native Hawaiian government. He fears this "puppet" government would negotiate away kanaka maoli lands to the state and federal governments, which has happened before to Native American tribes.

Morin said the U.S. Interior Department in 1923 handpicked the Navajo Grant Council as the legitimate representative of the Navajo nation and proceeded to negotiate a deal permitting Standard Oil Co. to drill for oil on Navajo land.

He said about 85 percent of the eligible Hopi voters boycotted the election that reorganized the Hopi, but the Bureau of Indian Affairs still imposed a government favored by the U.S.

"The taro-roots organizers of the successful boycott of the native Hawaiian vote have it right," he said.