Ten people have been nominated to run for Chief of Nipissing First Nation.
Incumbent Scott McLeod is among them, with nine challengers also put forward at last Friday’s virtual nomination meeting.
They include:
- Robert Commanda
- George Couchie
- Corey Goulais
- Susanne Goulais-Deering
- Darlene Gingras
- Thomas Lambert
- David Miner
- Mike Penasse
- Jeff Stewart
Thirty-eight people are nominated for seven councillor seats.
‘It’s a little bit higher than usual, not much though. The Zoom format for the nomination meeting, due to COVID, brought new faces which was actually quite pleasant to see,” says Fred Bellefeuille, Nipissing First Nation Electoral Officer.
He says those nominated can now accept or decline the nomination.
“That process normally narrows down the list to usually around five or six for chief, at the most, and 15 to 20 for council,” he says.
The updated list is expected by the end of the month.
Bellefeuille says there are three ways for eligible voters to cast their ballot.
“I’d encourage everybody to use the Internet-based voting through OneFeather, there are mail-in ballots as well, that are COVID-friendly and if they can’t do that, or they don’t want to do that, there is going to be in-person polls,” he says.
The advanced poll will be held July 3rd with Election Day on July 9th.
As of Election Day there will be 2,467 eligible voters.