It is not often you see a clear case of a stolen election, but that’s what the Miami City Commission has voted to do.

Mayoral and commissioner elections were supposed to be held in November, but the panel decided in a 3-2 vote to postpone them until next year. The city’s charter says elections are to be held in odd-numbered years.

To implement the change, the commission gave two members and the term-limited mayor another year in office without voters’ approval.

Some city residents have feverishly objected, and Emilio Gonzalez, one of the candidates for mayor, has filed a lawsuit.

“This is not about me. This is about our ability to vote,” he told The Washington Times. “I spent my entire adult career in the military defending democracy around the world, and now I’ve got to come over here and defend democracy in my hometown.”

State Attorney General James Uthmeier has issued an opinion saying any change to the election date would require approval by the city’s voters in a referendum. Gov. Ron DeSantis has signaled that he supports the attorney general.

Mayor Francis Suarez now must decide whether to veto the change, though the Miami Herald reported last month that he was lobbying behind the scenes to push it through.

Mr. Suarez’s office didn’t respond to an inquiry for this report.

Commissioners are not elected as partisans, though two of the three who supported the change are unofficially considered Democrats.

They said they changed the election date to coincide with the big federal elections in even-numbered years to boost turnout and save money.

Miami’s city attorney said the date change was legal and pointed to other South Florida cities that had changed their dates by commission vote.

The Herald reported that some members of the city’s immigrant-heavy Hispanic community were furious about the idea of canceling elections and unloaded on the commission during meetings last month.

“This commission is doing the right thing for the wrong reasons,” said Rammel Guzman, 49, who compared the vote unfavorably with the former Venezuelan regime of Hugo Chavez.

“I was born in Venezuela, and in 1999 the constitution was reformed by Chavez, and even he put it to a vote. We need to do better than that,” Mr. Guzman said, according to the Herald.

Another constituent called the change an act of “voter suppression.”

The mayor’s office and two of the five commissioner posts were due for election this year.

Commission Chair Christine King, who is up for reelection, supported the change, effectively giving herself an extra year before facing voters again.

Commissioner Joe Carollo, who is term-limited and cannot seek reelection but is thought to be considering a run for mayor, voted against the change. He served a couple of terms as city mayor around the turn of the century.

Unless the decision is overturned, Mr. Carollo will get another year in office as commissioner.

Miami City is part of the broader Miami-Dade County, which has its own mayor.

City commissioners are limited to two consecutive terms but can run again after a one-term break.

The commission has supported a change that would impose a lifetime two-term limit. The commissioners did call for putting that change to voters in a referendum.

Mr. Suarez is completing his second two-term stint as mayor, so the change would mean he would have served a total of 17 years.

Hanging over Mr. Suarez is Mr. DeSantis, who has shown no reluctance to fire local officials he feels are violating their terms of office. The Florida Supreme Court has upheld his power to do so.

Mr. Gonzalez said that if the commission prevails, there will be little to stop it from canceling the next elections.

He said the vote underscores a sense that the city’s government has been captured by corruption.

“I refuse to just sit on my hands and say, ‘Oh well, that’s how Miami is,’” he told The Times.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.