Nunavut hamlet to hold new election March 5

Kugluktuk’s incumbent mayor Ryan Nivingalok, in black, cuts the ribbon at the hamlet’s six bay hamlet garage during a 2017 ceremony. (PHOTO COURTESY OF GN)

The Hamlet of Kugluktuk has rescheduled it municipal election for March 5.

Hamlet elections were scheduled to be held in communities across the territory last Dec. 11, but a complaint filed by a local voter three days before that election forced officials to postpone the vote.

The Kugluktuk resident complained that the Hamlet’s election material was printed only in English and not Inuinnaqtun, the Inuktut dialect spoken in the western Nunavut community.

Under Nunavut’s Official Languages Act and its Inuit Languages Protection Act, hamlets are required to provide communications to residents in Inuktut.

So hamlet officials postponed the election, re-opening the nomination process on Jan. 15.

This time around, the hamlet’s senior administrative officer said all election-related documents have been translated into Inuinnaqtun.

Initially, Kugluk had four candidates step forward to run for mayor, including the community’s incumbent mayor Ryan Nivingalok, plus Philip Evaglok, Valerie Miyok and Miranda Atatahak.

Another eight candidates were running for four seats on hamlet council:

• Wynter Kuliktana
• Larry Adjun
• Danny Zita
• Monica Angohiatok
• Sammy Angnaluak
• Nadene McMenemy
• Randy Hinanik
• Matilda Panioyak

But with a new election called, Leblanc said interested candidates will have to re-file their nomination papers, opening the door to new candidates.

The nomination period is open until Jan. 29.