Former Liberal candidate Tamara Goeppel entered not guilty pleas to charges she is facing under the Elections Act.
The pleas were expected. Goeppel’s lawyer has said since the charges were first announced that she plans to fight them.
Goeppel did not appear in court when the pleas were entered June 9. Her lawyer appeared by phone.
She is charged with two counts of aiding or abetting someone to make proxy applications that were not in accordance with the act and one count of inducing someone to falsely declare on proxy applications that they would be absent from the Yukon during the hours fixed for voting.
The Elections Act is a territorial law, but a federal Crown prosecutor has been brought in to try the case to avoid any appearance of impropriety.
Both the Crown and Goeppel’s lawyer agreed the trial will take about five days. No trial date has been set. That will happen at a court appearance June 30.
Goeppel lost in the riding of Whitehorse Centre to NDP Leader Liz Hanson by 55 votes. The Liberals went on to win a majority government.