Nunavut RCMP probe into Iqaluit West vote inconclusive

Elisapee Sheutiapik, the losing candidate for Iqaluit West in the Oct. 27, 2008 territorial election, said she has a lot of questions about a recently concluded RCMP investigation that found evidence of voting irregularities within the constituency. (FILE PHOTO)

(Updated 4:25 p.m., April 29)

Ineligible voters did cast ballots in the disputed election for Iqaluit West held Oct. 27, 2008, an RCMP investigation has found.

But at the same time, police could not tell whether those voting irregularities were intentional or mistaken.

“The investigation could not conclude whether these errors were fraudulent in nature or honest mistakes,” Cpl. Paul Robinson, the officer in charge of V division’s federal enforcement section, said this past April 19 in a letter to Elisapee Sheutiapik, the losing candidate.

Late in the day on April 29, the Nunavut RCMP issued a statement saying “the investigation found no breach of the Elections Act or the Criminal Code and no charges will be laid as a result.”

Sheutiapik’s campaign manager, Brian Twerdin, lodged complaints with Elections Nunavut and the RCMP soon after the 2008 territorial election, alleging people not resident in the constituency or otherwise not eligible to vote were able to cast ballots in Iqaluit West.

Sheutiapik lost by 44 votes to the incumbent, Paul Okalik, after a heated campaign that produced a turnout of 90.2 per cent. Okalik took 340 votes, while Sheutiapik won 296.

This week, Sheutiapik, who shared the RCMP letter with Nunatsiaq News, said she isn’t satisfied with the thoroughness of the investigation or the response from the RCMP, which she described as “vague.”

She said her campaign supplied the RCMP with the names of 22 Iqaluit West voters they believed to be ineligible “off the top of our heads.”

But she said she and her campaign team always believed a much higher number of ineligible voters were allowed to cast ballots.

She said, for example, that a new apartment building opened up within the Inuksagait Plaza building less than a year prior to election day.

This means many of those of tenants were either newcomers to the consituency and even newcomers to Nunavut, and possibly ineligible.

And some, such as Arctic College students, may have been temporary residents who should have voted in their home constituencies, Sheutiapik said.

“How do they know for sure?” she said.

The Nunavut Elections Act says that a person is eligible to vote if they are 18 or older, a Canadian citizen, and a resident of Nunavut for at least one year prior to election day.

People who move from one constituency to another appear to be eligible — although temporary residents must vote in the constituency that they call home for at least six months of the year.

In his letter, Robinson told Sheutiapik that “there is some validity to your complaint.”

He said some voters cast ballots in the wrong constituency. And some temporary residents who were eligible only to vote in their home communities also cast ballots.

“However, it would not have affected the outcome of the October 2008 Nunavut General Election for Iqaluit West,” Robinson wrote.

Robinson told Sheutiapik it’s the responsibility of polling clerks to verify proof of residency for each registered voter.

Robinson also said he’s forwarded a letter to the Nunavut chief electoral officer “for review and to make any amendments, if any, to the Elections Act of Nunavut.”

Robinson did not immediately respond to a voice-mail message left April 29.

Sandy Kusugak, the head of Elections Nunavut, did not immediately respond to a telephone message left at her office April 29.

(More to follow)