FORT DUCHESNE — Two current members of the Ute Tribe Business Committee still have a chance to retain their seats, but a third Business Committee member will see his term end in May after losing a bid for re-election.

The two candidates from each band receiving the highest number of votes will face each other in an April 12 general election.

The official results of the tribe's March 22 primary election for three open seats on the Business Committee show that Uncompahgre representative Roland McCook Sr. received 23 votes. But challengers Ronald Groves and Roseline Taveapont collected 49 and 55 votes, respectively.

McCook was seeking his third four-year term on the governing Business Committee.

Taveapont is a former Business Committee member who lost her bid for re-election two years ago.

The Whiteriver band had seven candidates seeking elected office. Former Business Committee member Frances Poowegup was the runaway leader with 80 votes. Incumbent Business Committee member Ridley Eaglechief was the next highest vote-getter with 39 votes.

The Uintah band will have a run-off election Tuesday, April 4, to break the tie vote and determine who will face incumbent Fabian Jenks. Jenks received 56 votes. Challengers Cameron Cuch and Irene Cuch came in second, each garnering 32 votes.

Irene Cuch is a former Business Committee member, while Cameron Cuch serves as the tribe's education director. The winner of the tie-breaker will face Jenks in the April 12 general election. Thirteen candidates ran for office from the Uintah band.

Two former Business Committee members, Ron Wopsock and Luke Duncan — who were ousted from office in October 2003 for voicing opposition to the tribe's financial adviser, John Jurrius — were excluded from running for office. The two men are challenging the constitutionality of an ordinance enacted by four members of the Business Committee soon after their ouster from office that prohibits them from running for office. The ordinance prohibits anyone removed from the Business Committee from seeking re-election to office for four years following their expulsion.

Their complaint is pending before Tribal Court, the Department of the Interior's administrative court, the Federal District Court for the District of Utah, and the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.

If any of their challenges are upheld, the results of the tribe's 2005 elections would be declared invalid, and the process would have to be repeated beginning with nominations, according to their attorney Sandy Hansen. Both Wopsock and Duncan received several nominations to run in the primary election. Because of the ordinance, however, the nomination ballots were determined to be "spoiled" by the Election Committee.

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