Five Pangnirtung beneficiaries to contest QIA community director position

Inuit beneficiaries in Pangnirtung will have five candidates to choose from in the upcoming byelection for a community director, a news release from the Qikiqtani Inuit Association said March 3.

The release included an unofficial list of candidates for the election, to be held April 7:

• Leopa Akpalialuk;

• Manasa Evic;

• Peter Evic;

• Hezakiah Oshutapik; and,

• Sakiasie Sowdlooapik

Polling stations open between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. in Pangnirtung on April 7, with advance polling scheduled for March 30.

Those who cannot vote in person can vote by a proxy, the release said.

A proxy is a person who has been given official permission to vote on someone else’s behalf.

For a proxy vote, two forms must be filled out: a voting form filled out by the person unable to vote in person; and a form filled out by the person acting as proxy.

Both of those forms can be downloaded from the QIA website, or picked up at the office of Pangnirtung’s community liaison officer, Sheena Machmer.

The QIA called the byelection after Tommy Akulukjuk resigned from the post this past November, citing “personal reasons.”

Because Akulukjuk resigned less than one year into his three-year term, the QIA had to fill his seat through a byelection.

A number of QIA elections in December, including for president of the Baffin Inuit organization, resulted in two recounts, and two separate court actions alleging a lack of election fairness.