Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

IQALUIT (Nov 01/99) - Chief electoral officer David Hamilton released the final report from Nunavut's first election recently.

Including 19 recommendations made by the CEO for consideration by the Nunavut legislative assembly, the report, entitled A New Beginning, also gives financial figures for the historic event.

Originally estimated to cost $600,922, the final tally was actually significantly higher.

"The total cost was $977,035," said Hamilton, who, while an employee of the GNWT, was given responsibility for the conduct of the Nunavut election under the Nunavut First Elections Act.

Attributing the high cost to language issues and communications tactics, Hamilton added the increased number of electoral sites also bumped up the cost of the election in the East. He speculated that it was going to do the same for the NWT's Dec. 6 election, the budget of which has been estimated at $812,000.

"The whole territory in 1995 was $1.2 million. We had 24 districts before, now we have 38 in total," said Hamilton. More districts also meant more employees and polling stations, he added. In terms of other financial figures, Hamilton released a summary of the candidates' total election contributions and expenses.

Iqaluit East competitors Ed Picco and Natsiq Kango brought in the most with a total of $29,237.53 in contributions and spent $28,928.15. The riding of Cambridge Bay came second with $27,768.57 in contributions and $27,238.78 in expenditures. Candidates in Amittuq -- Iglulik and Hall Beach -- received the smallest amount, $135.91, and also spent the least, $463.15, a figure that still put the district in the hole.

As for the 19 recommendations, Hamilton advised the MLAs to look at eliminating enumeration and adopting a permanent list of electors; he suggested they consider eliminating proxy voting because of the many other types of voting opportunities available; and he suggested they rescind their rule that returning officers be prevented from voting. Other recommendations for change included simplifying the contributions and expenses paperwork and perhaps most importantly, Hamilton urged the assembly to consider the changes as soon as possible.

"If they're going to make changes to the Elections Act, make them fairly soon so the residents know what they're planning to do. Maybe they want to ask residents what they want," said Hamilton.

While some of the changes could be useful in fine-tuning the NWT Elections Act, with the exception of beefing up their methods of communicating election information, there isn't time to implement change before the voters head to the polls.

Copies of the report can be obtained from the GN.