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Liard First Nation election postponed

The Liard First Nation election has been postponed after the chief returning officer resigned March 21.
liard

The Liard First Nation election has been postponed after the chief returning officer resigned March 21.

The LFN’s election committee announced Lois Moorcroft, a former NDP MLA and justice critic, has resigned. She had been appointed chief returning officer Feb. 28.

At a meeting on March 21, Moorcroft told the committee she was resigning.

Election committee co-chair Emma Donnessy wouldn’t say why Moorcroft resigned.

The committee is already looking for a replacement, Donnessy said.

March 20 was the deadline for candidates to submit their nomination forms.

They will now have to refile their nomination papers once a new chief returning officer is appointed and a new election date is set.

The election will probably be delayed by two weeks, Donnessy said, pushing it to April 24 from April 10.

Moorcroft couldn’t be reached for comment by press time this morning.

The committee needs to officially re-start the 31-day campaign, which means it needs to find a new returning officer by the end of the week if it wants the election to take place by April 24.

The election committee also published the list of candidates who’ve put their names forward for the election.

Dorothy Hayes, George Morgan, Don Magun and Daniel Morris will be running for the seat of chief.

Morris, the incumbent chief, has been heavily criticized for failing to hold the election on time. According to Liard election rules, the regularly scheduled election was supposed to take place before Dec. 15, 2016.

Morgan has been Morris’s most vocal opponent over the past two years. He ran against Morris in the 2013 election and lost.

Fred Lutz and Peter Stone are candidates for the deputy chief seat.

Betty Shepherd, Tanya Ball, Kenneth E. McMillan, Malcolm A. Groat and Harlan A. C. Schilling are candidates for the two B.C. councillor seats.

Travis Stewart, Louis Roy Dick, Billy George, Sam Donnessey, Melissa Magun, Peter Charlie, Cathy Dickson, Dawn McDonald and Jim Wolftail are candidates for the four Yukon councillor seats.

More candidates could come forward or some of the candidates could drop out because the nomination date has been pushed back.

Contact Pierre Chauvin at pierre.chauvin@yukon-news.com