Kusugak’s “victory” an anti-climax

PATRICIA D’SOUZA

Jose Kusugak will lead Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami for another three years, after an anti-climactic election in Puvurnituq last week.

Kusugak received the majority of votes on the first ballot, in the Oct. 23 election, ITK said in a press release this week, but chief electoral officer Robert Martel said the rules of the organization do not permit him to release the vote breakdown, or to say whether candidates other than Kusugak received any votes at all.

Officials at ITK could not say why those rules exist.

ITK’s electoral procedure does not require the winning candidate to receive more than 50 per cent of the ballots cast. It simply requires that he or she receive more votes than any other candidate. If all other candidates received one or two votes each, Kusugak could conceivably have won with only three votes.

It is also conceivable that Kusugak received all of the votes – and that none of the 12 voting members of the general assembly had any intention of voting for anyone else.

The 12 delegates – Pita Aatami, Johnny Peters and George Berthe of Makivik Corp., Tony Anderson, Bob Lyall and Jolene Jenkins of the Labrador Inuit Association, Cathy Towtongie, Raymond Ningeocheak and Kowesa Etituq of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., and Nellie Cournoyea, Gilbert Thrasher and Joseph Haluksik of the Inuvialuit Development Corp. – voted by secret ballot.

None of the delegates would say who they voted for.

“There wasn’t much of a choice there,” said Raymond Ningeocheak, an NTI delegate and the organization’s second vice-president.

Another delegate said some of the other members told him they voted for candidates other than Kusugak.

“I am certain that Jose didn’t get 100 per cent of the vote,” said Tony Anderson, president of the LIA.

But Anderson criticized the electoral process, which gave candidates only 10 minutes to address the delegates.

“Ten minutes isn’t long enough, because some delegates from some regions don’t know some of these candidates,” he said.

For instance, the other two Labrador delegates knew only one or two or the candidates. Anderson said the “campaign” period should be extended to half an hour, with extra time for questions.

Candidates who participated by teleconference also felt let down by the process.

“Phoning in really has no advantage whatsoever. I couldn’t gauge the level of interest,” said Pitseolak Pfeifer, a former ITK employee and first-time presidential candidate.

Pfeifer and Ruby Arngna’naaq participated by phone, John Amagoalik submitted a written statement, and Violet Ford, Peter Ittinuar and Kusugak campaigned in person in Puvurnituq. Jerry Komaksiutiksak withdrew from the election on Oct. 20, and threw his support behind Kusugak.

While ITK did not provide any of the candidates with funding to travel to Puvurnituq for the campaign period, Kusugak’s trip was entirely funded by ITK because, as president, he had to chair a board meeting held the previous day.

“The whole experience really demonstrates that there needs to be some changes,” Pfeifer said, adding he wouldn’t mind getting a refund for his $200 nomination fee.

“At the national level, you have to be part of the clique. It’s a pretty vicious game,” he said.

Kusugak, for his part, said the electoral process is beyond his mandate.

“It has nothing to do with me,” he said in a telephone interview from Ottawa this week. “It seemed that there were a lot of people upset at Jose Kusugak. They are aiming their anger at the wrong area. They should be talking to the board.”

In the end, even some of the delegates were underwhelmed by the outcome.

“I was waiting for a dramatic ending, but it just kind of happened,” said George Berthe, a delegate for Nunavik’s Makivik Corp.

“And then we went to the airport [to go home].”