August 3, 2026
Palikir, Pohnpei – The FSM Supreme Court Appellate Division has formally returned the long-running Chuuk gubernatorial election appeal to the Chuuk State Supreme Court following its June decision dismissing the case for lack of jurisdiction.
In a mandate ordered July 29 and entered July 30, the FSM Supreme Court directed the Chuuk State Supreme Court Appellate Division to place the FSM court’s June 23 dismissal on its docket and take any further action consistent with that ruling.
The mandate is the latest procedural development in the legal challenge brought by Mark Mailo and Joe Enlet following Chuuk’s March 2025 gubernatorial election. The case named the Chuuk State Election Commission, Governor Alexander Narruhn and Lieutenant Governor Mekioshy William as appellees.
The document recounts that the Chuuk State Supreme Court Appellate Division dismissed Civil Appeal No. 004-2025 on April 15, 2025, with the decision memorialized in writing on April 21. The state appellate court found that Mailo and Enlet’s election complaint had not been properly filed and was therefore subject to dismissal.
Mailo and Enlet subsequently sought review by the FSM Supreme Court Appellate Division.
On June 23, the FSM Supreme Court granted a motion to dismiss that appeal, finding that it lacked jurisdiction because the underlying election complaint had not been timely filed. The ruling did not decide the substantive allegations concerning the conduct or outcome of the election.
The new mandate does not reconsider or alter that June ruling. Instead, it formally communicates the appellate court’s judgment to the Chuuk State Supreme Court and returns authority over any proceedings consistent with the ruling to the state court.
“Therefore, you are hereby commanded to cause such Order Granting Motion to Dismiss to show of record on your docket and you may take such other and further action as may be consistent with our order entered on June 23, 2026,” the mandate says.
The mandate was signed by FSM Supreme Court Associate Justice Chang B. William, Yap Chief Justice Cyprian J. Manmaw sitting by special assignment, and Pohnpei Associate Justice Robert P. Nakasone, also sitting by special assignment. It was ordered July 29 and entered by the Clerk of Court the following day.
The litigation has been one part of an extended series of challenges arising from the 2025 Chuuk gubernatorial election. Narruhn and William were sworn in for their second terms on April 15, 2025.
The mandate closes the FSM Supreme Court appellate proceeding arising from the state appellate court’s dismissal, while leaving the Chuuk State Supreme Court to take whatever further action, if any, is consistent with the June 23 order.
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