Tie Vote Forces PBCN to Order Second Referendum

Tie Vote Forces PBCN to Order Second Referendum

Friday, April 02, 2004 at 16:07

The Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation’s ratification vote on its proposed election act held earlier this week ended in a tie.

The official results were released this afternoon and the band reports that the vote count ended in a 465 to 465 tie, with 10 spoiled ballots — which means only 23 per cent of eligible voters bothered to vote.

The band says in order to get a clear mandate as to whether the membership supports or rejects the election act, a second vote will be held next Wednesday, April 7th.

Just like this past Wednesday’s vote, it will be held in 10 different communities.

Among other things, the proposed PBCN election act calls for new council seats to be established in Sandy Bay, Deschambault Lake and Southend and also calls for the elected terms for chief and council to be extended from 2 years to 3 years.