The chief electoral officer for the Montreal Lake Cree Nation says he is prepared to swear in a new chief on Wednesday.
Clifford Bird says Frank J. Roberts will be the new chief by acclamation.
The band’s appeal tribunal had previously ordered a special by-election to be held next Monday.
It was to include the three people who ran in the chief election earlier this year — Chief Edward Henderson, Roger L. Bird and Joyce G. McLeod — and Roberts, who had previously been prevented from running.
Clifford Bird says Henderson failed to submit a declaration of intent to seek re-election, while Roger Bird and McLeod submitted notices of withdrawal, leaving Roberts as the only candidate.
The electoral officer says the swearing-in ceremony will be held Wednesday evening at the Senator Allen Bird Memorial School gymnasium in Montreal Lake.
“At this point in time, we have no order that we can’t use band buildings for this,” Bird says. “So I continue to be under the understanding of band members with this being a process of the nation that we continue to be able to have access to these buildings.”
The band manager has previously questioned the legitimacy of the special by-election, arguing among other things that a band council resolution has not been passed to make it official.
Mark D’Amato has also argued Roberts should be disqualified from running because of an alleged debt to the band, adding there is no evidence Clifford Bird contacted the proper band officials to investigate that claim.
The electoral officer says a process is underway to have the courts help enforce the latest developments.
Neither Henderson nor D’Amato has been immediately available for comment.