A fight broke out at the Chuuk State’s Legislative Chambers after elected officials swore-in on Tuesday following a contested gubernatorial election.

Shortly after the three separate swearing-in ceremonies of all branches. 

State police arrived to arrest the former Deputy Director of the Chuuk State Election Office inside these halls and attempted to arrest the sitting senate president, both without a warrant. 

This is according to Timothy Ruda, a recently ousted representative in the Chuuk state legislature. 

“Obviously, their attempt failed as family members and workers of the legislature intervened. Then you see in the video, one of the family members that tried to intervene got hit in the head and got injured. He was also escorted to the hospital thereafter,” said Ruda. 

As reported, the contested election and its controversies led to incumbent Governor Alexander Narruhn declaring a state of emergency, where he created a special police force for public safety. 

Mahoney Mori, the President of the Chuuk Youth Council and Chairman of the Pacific Youth Council, has been following the election closely. 

“Allegedly politicians are involved in all of that– different parities are recognizing two different conflicting commissions,” said Mori. “It was quite a historic event. We are witnessing multiple events that are interesting and of course there were– I mean animosity is quite tense here. There’s a lot of tensions.”

He was at the Governor’s swearing-in ceremony, which he says was well organized despite the tensions. 

As reported, it concluded without disruption. 

The escalation, according to Ruda, came from law enforcement, not civilians. 

“The ongoing chaos at the moment or the ongoing conflict at the moment is more or less a show of power between two separate police forces– one being the state police and the other the municipal police,” said Ruda. “I see people on both sides of opposing teams who would be coworkers or friends and they’re okay. We see people going about their way, people still going to work and people still driving up and down the streets. I think the whole amping up of public safety by law enforcement is what’s causing people to be nervous right now.”

Meantime,  he said the courts ruled in Gov. Narruhn and Lt. Governor Mekioshy William’s favor, securing their win on Tuesday.

The Chuuk state remains in a state of emergency. 

Ruda hopes the internal conflict can be resolved peacefully before the administration’s inauguration in the coming months.