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(Submitted photo/ Clarisse Lecoq)
Election results

Former administrator elected urban councilor

Aug 16, 2019 | 1:10 PM

The newly elected urban councilor for Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation (PBCN) says she is anxious to get to work.

The unofficial results from Thursday’s byelection show Clarisse Lecoq received 400 votes, just over a 100 more than runner-up Warren McCallum.

“I feel good about about it and am excited to get to work,” she said.

Warren McCallum received 295 votes and Darren McCallum received 181. There were eight spoiled ballots. One of the projects Lecoq talked about during her campaign was an elders home in the city.

“There’s a lot people out there who are willing to help the urban membership and I’ll get talking to them and I will set up meetings for them so we can start planning on it,” she said.

Thursday’s byelection did not entirely go off without a hitch. paNOW received a complaint from one man claiming be a band member about the way the byelection was being run, claiming he was not allowed to vote.

When paNOW went down to the polling station at Parkland Hall, Electoral officer Randy Clarke explained the election was a continuation of the one that was supposed to happen in July last year, so if people had voted then, then they could not vote again. Clarke added only PBCN band members could vote, and that some people from other bands had also tried to vote but were turned away. Lecoq told paNOW she felt the electoral process was fair.

The initial byelection following the March 2018 byelection was scheduled to take place the following July, but those plans were shelved when Warren McCallum, who had been declared the winner in the 2018 election, attempted to appeal the tribunal’s ruling. A federal court judge dismissed the appeal last month.

nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwellnistrat

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