Recount in Sanirajak mayor race set for Friday

Elections Nunavut will hold a recount on Friday to determine who Sanirajak’s new mayor will be.

Monday night’s municipal election ended with a tie between the top two candidates: Ammie H. Kipsigak and Philip Anguratsiaq. Each received 57 votes in the four-way race for mayor of the Qikiqtaaluk region hamlet.

A justice of the peace recount was requested in order to determine the result of the race, the territory’s chief electoral officer Dustin Fredlund said in an email.

That recount will take place at Sanirajak hamlet chambers Friday at 9 a.m. Arrangements were made to bring in a justice of the peace for the recount, Fredlund said.

The recount is not open to the public, but candidates are being notified and given the opportunity to attend.

Under Nunavut’s Elections Act, if there’s still a tie after that recount the outcome of the mayor’s race will be settled by a draw. That result would be final, Fredlund said.

Residents in Sanirajak cast 171 votes for mayor in Monday’s election. Voter turnout was 43.2 per cent, according to Elections Nunavut’s website.

Jason Kaernerk finished third with 33 votes, while fourth-place finisher David Curley had 24.

In Cambridge Bay, an administrative recount Tuesday determined that Dana Langille had secured the eighth place on the eight-member hamlet council with 232 votes, compared to William Palvialok’s ninth-place finish with 228 votes. A recount is required when four votes or less separates two candidates.