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The newly elected trustees were ready
to be sworn in when a complaint
stopped the ceremony

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By Crystal Kua
Star-Bulletin

A ceremony to swear in the newly elected trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs was called off this morning because of a challenge to their election.

Kaui Amsterdam, a failed OHA candidate, filed a complaint yesterday with the state Supreme Court, asking it to invalidate the results of the OHA election because non-Hawaiians were allowed to vote in the election and, as a result, a non-Hawaiian was elected a trustee.

"The voting results of the non native Hawaiian ... vote did not express the will of the (native Hawaiian)," said the complaint, which was filed about 15 minutes before yesterday's 4:30 p.m. deadline.

By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
At the Office of Hawaiian Affairs boardroom, trustees Rowena
Akana, Charles Ota and Linda K. Dela Cruz wait for news on the
swearing in ceremony.The ceremony was called off because
of a court challenge to the election.

OHA chairman Clayton Hee said he met with Chief Justice Ronald Moon this morning. The chief justice told him the elected trustees could not be sworn in until the challenge was adjudicated.

Hee said he will meet the state attorney general to determine the "interim status" of the board pending the outcome of the challenge.

Hee said the issue should be adjudicated quickly because the basis of the challenge is "narrow".

The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year said non-Hawaiians must be allowed to vote in the OHA elections. Previously, only Hawaiians were allowed to vote.

Amsterdam next must serve the complaint on the defendants named in his complaint, Elections Chief Dwayne Yoshina and Gov. Ben Cayetano. The state then has 10 days to respond to the complaint and the Supreme Court will make its decision after that.

Besides Hee, the trustees elected in the General Election were Rowena Akana, Linda Dela Cruz, Haunani Apoliona, Colette Machado, Donald Cataluna, Oswald Stender, John Waihee IV and Charles Ota, the first non-Hawaiian elected to the OHA board.

Trustees, all of whom were wearing leis, were waiting in the board room for the 10 a.m. ceremony to begin. The meeting table was adorned with Hawaiian items such as feather lei, kapa and gourds.

Dela Cruz led those squeezed in the board room in song.

"Who we waiting for?" she said at one point. "The judge?"

After hearing about the challenge at about 10:30, Dela Cruz replied, "They just trying to screw us up."

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Office of Hawaiian Affairs
State Office of Elections