Inuit organizations prepare for Dec. 14 elections
NTI presidency, eight QIA positions up for grabs
Election workers count ballots during an NTI election held in December 2010. (File photo)
Attention all Nunavut Inuit: Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and the Qikiqtani Inuit Association are preparing for elections this Dec. 14.
At NTI, only one position is up for grabs, but it’s an important one: the organization’s president.
That’s because incumbent president Aluki Kotierk’s four-year term expires this year.
She won the job in an election held on Dec. 13, 2016, when she took 32.1 per cent of ballots cast, defeating Cathy Towtongie, Joe Kunuk and Levinia Brown. Voter turnout that year was only 31.9 per cent.
This year, the nomination period for candidate declarations in the NTI presidential race starts soon. It opens at 9 a.m. on Nov. 2 and runs until Nov. 6 at 5 p.m. local time.
For information on the NTI election and how to contact chief returning officer Kathleen Sigurdson, go to this web page.
To be eligible, a candidate must be an Inuk enrolled under the Nunavut Agreement and 16 years of age or older as of election day.
If you’re planning to run as a candidate, you can start campaigning immediately, but you can’t fundraise until after you’re officially declared a candidate.
And eligible voters have until Oct. 23 to check whether their name appears on the voters list.
You can find the voters list online at this web page, or you can contact your local community liaison officer.
On election day, NTI will follow the guidelines of Nunavut’s chief public health officer, NTI says.
Eight QIA positions up for grabs
Also on Dec. 14, the QIA will hold elections to fill two executive positions and six spots on its board.
They’ll hold a region-wide election for the positions of vice-president, now held by Olayuk Akesuk of Kinngait, and secretary-treasurer, now held by Joe Attagutaluk of Igloolik.
And they’ll hold local-only elections to fill community director positions in eight communities.
Those six communities are the following:
• Arctic Bay
• Grise Fiord
• Kinngait
• Pangnirtung
• Qikiqtarjuaq
• Resolute Bay
In Igloolik, Louis Tapardjuk, the former Nunavut MLA and cabinet minister, won the community director position in a byelection held on Sept. 21.
For information about the QIA election, including how to contact chief returning officer Paul Okalik, go to this web page.
It goes as well as the DEA elections of last year. Only about 10 communities in Baffin had 0,1, or 2 actual applicants. Good times. All Committees Matter.
Be careful candidates. The “politically” corrected people will scrutinise every word you say. Remember, “Freedom of Speech” and “Freedom of Expression” is no more in Nunavut.
We seriously need someone to run from the west for the Presidency of NTI, I often feel that we are alienated the this organization which is supposed to represent Nunavut as a whole.
I am not from that Region but I would agree with you, as it is with other boards and seats, it is an excellent idea to have the rotation. Get behind a strong candidate who can win!