Adam Johnson
Northern News Services
Published Friday, January 11, 2008

YELLOWKNIFE - Though hopes were high for a pre-Christmas completion, work is still ongoing to get to the bottom of two NWT elections complaints.

"We were hoping to wrap it up before Christmas," said Saundra Arberry, the NWT's chief electoral officer.

Chief electoral officer Saundra Arberry say work is still underway to investigate two complaints of potential wrongdoing during the fall vote. - NNSL file photo

"Some of the players are just unavailable or taking longer to get a hold of."

Otherwise, Arberry said she couldn't comment on the details or progress.

"The investigation is ongoing," she said.

The complaints are from the districts of Yellowknife Centre and Monfwi, about the Oct. 1 election.

In Yellowknife Centre, a 14-page letter from third-place candidate Ben McDonald to Yellowknife media and Elections NWT claimed more than 200 people voted in the Yellowknife Centre riding without proving their eligibility to vote.

He also wrote that campaigning may have gone on in the polling area, which is against election rules.

"I'm not making allegations against anybody, I just made observations," McDonald said in a previous interview.

In Monfwi, an election-day fax was widely distributed by a Diavik diamond mine employee, smearing candidate Jackson Lafferty and urging voters to back competitor Henry Zoe.

In the end, Robert Hawkins was re-elected to a second term in Yellowknife, while Jackson Lafferty was given a second term for Monfwi.

Arberry didn't give an idea of when the investigations may finish but said her office was moving forward as quickly as it could.

"Hopefully we'll wrap that up soon," she said. "People are looking for a resolution."

Any violation of the Elections Act can carry a range of penalties, from a fine to a short period of imprisonment.