The Catawba Indian Nation is set to vote today and Saturday in what some say is the first official tribal election in roughly a decade.

Not everyone is celebrating.

Five tribal members filed a lawsuit this week seeking to stop the elections and remove current Chief Gilbert Blue from power. They say they are the rightful leaders of the York County tribe.

It's the latest in a series of legal battles involving the tribe, which on Wednesday saw its former executive director Wanda George Warren indicted on a charge that she stole thousands of tribal dollars.

Today's vote -- conducted by paper ballot at the Longhouse administration building on the Catawba reservation -- could have far-reaching implications for the tribe for years to come, observers say.

The tribe will choose two new members for the seven-member executive committee that governs the Catawbas, and vote on whether to adopt a new constitution.

Seventeen people are running for the council. All tribal members over 18 are eligible to vote, which amounts to about 1,585 people.

According to brief biographies in a newsletter, candidates include several Catawbas who now work in tribal offices.

There is also a retired truck driver, a Vietnam veteran, and a drumming and dancing enthusiast.

There's a man who has lived on the reservation east of Rock Hill for 30 years, another who moved back in 1998, and one who promised to be fair and not take sides.

A runoff will be held in two weeks if no two candidates receive majority votes.

"To have (17) people running for two seats suggests to me that the tribe is healthy, that there are people willing to help it go forward," said Jay Bender, an attorney representing the tribe.

Blue could not be reached for comment Thursday. He and others have been urging members for two years to ratify the new constitution.

The document would give the executive committee more authority to make decisions without a vote from the full tribe. The committee would operate similar to a county or city council, said Rock Hill attorney Bob Jones, who is working with the tribe.

Thirty percent of eligible voters must cast ballots for the constitution to be accepted or rejected. Earlier efforts to reach that threshold failed. About 175 members had voted on it during open balloting before Friday, Jones said.

Blue said in the newsletter that the constitution will "set the course for future generations" of Catawbas. But some want to see a different course charted.

Deborah Crisco, a tribal member and critic of the current administration, is encouraging other members not to vote on new committee members -- or the constitution.

"It is not good for the people," she said. "It will give the executive committee total power."

If the constitution passes, the tribe will have to hold new elections for all executive committee seats -- including chief, Jones said.

The lawsuit filed this week in county courts follows one dismissed from federal courts earlier this year after judges found that state, not federal, law was relevant.

The new lawsuit was filed by Samuel Mitchell Beck, E. Fred Sanders, Heyward Jackson Canty Jr., Andrew Gene Blue and F. William Harris. The group says it is the "duly elected executive committee of the Catawba Indian Nation."

It names Warren, and the existing executive committee, as defendants.

The suit says that Chief Blue and his administration have failed to hold regular meetings or elections as mandated by the old constitution. It calls this weekend's vote an "unconstitutional `partial' election."

Bender pointed out that the complaint filed this week was an amended complaint, saying the original was filed months ago. He said to him, that "suggests to me that it's politically motivated, not legally motivated."

In terms of stopping the election, he said, "I would think that they might be too late."

The Candidates

Teresa Harris-Auten

Bobby Everette Blue

Randall (Randy) Lavon Blue Jr.

Huey Canty

Charles "Buster" Foxx

Tolani Franks

Roger "Wayne" George

Susan M. George

Sue Brown-Gunderson

David H. Gunn Jr.

Jason M. Harris

Jeanette G. Largo

Janet Bryson Mosley

Larry "Dwayne" Rogers, II

Thomas "Butch" Sanders

Warren "Brian" Sanders

Denise Bryson Williams