By David Schwartz
PHOENIX (Reuters) - A finalist to head the largest U.S. Native American tribe will remain on the ballot despite a ruling last week that he should be disqualified for refusing to prove his fluency in the Navajo language, an election official said on Tuesday.
The Navajo Nation's Elections Board of Supervisors allowed the election to go ahead without the change, meaning members of the tribe will be able to vote for presidential candidate Chris Deschene in the Nov. 4 general election.
Deschene is vying against former tribal president Joe Shirley Jr. for leadership of the 300,000-member Nation.
LeNora Fulton, an elections board member and Apache County recorder, said the decision to move forward with Deschene on the ballot was taken "to protect the peoples' right to vote."
"We can deal with everything else after the election," she said.
A hearing officer ruled against Deschene on Thursday after the candidate refused to answer in Navajo questions proposed to him during proceedings at the Nation's Office of Hearings and Appeals.
Tribal law requires that all presidential hopefuls be fluent in Navajo, which U.S. Census estimates show is spoken by a dwindling number of people.
Deschene was expected to ask the hearing officer to reconsider his decision later this week, his spokeswoman said. The Navajo Supreme Court could ultimately decide the case.
The candidate said in a statement on Tuesday his team is exploring all legal options to ensure his supporters are heard and respected.
Deschene won a place on the general election ballot in August, finishing second to Shirley. His candidacy then was challenged by two unsuccessful candidates who said Deschene lied about his fluency.
The former Arizona state lawmaker has said he will keep working to learn Navajo, and told a reporter that he would be fluent by the end of his first term if he is elected.
The Navajo Nation covers parts of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico totaling 27,425 square miles.
Among the most famous Navajo speakers were 29 "code talkers" who developed an unbreakable cipher based on their language that helped Allied forces win World War Two.
Chester Nez, the last survivor of the original group recruited by the U.S. Marine Corps, died in New Mexico in June.
(Additional reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Eric Walsh)