Christine Kay
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Nov 11/02) - Elisapee Sheutiapik won more votes than any other candidate in Iqaluit's byelection Nov. 4.

She said many people told her prior to the race that she would win. She believes that now.

"The numbers just confirm what people have been telling me. Being a people person, I know people like me because I like people. It's nice that it's confirmed now," said Sheutiapik.

She led the nine candidates with 432 votes. Douglas Lem followed closely behind Sheutiapik with 356 votes. Both candidates are now officially city councillors.

Sheutiapik's campaign agent, Hannah Uniuqsaraq, said they spent most of the time creating awareness on election issues.

"It was for raising awareness. Twenty-five minutes of campaigning was 20 minutes of informing people about the election and five minutes for Elisapee," said Uniuqsaraq.

To celebrate the victory, Sheutiapik held a little gathering at the Grind n' Brew, a coffee shop she owns with her husband Brian. Her son Iola was not present for the victory party, but he was waiting by the phone to find out what happened. His reaction was a simple, "Cool."

Doug Lem was almost asleep when he received a call with news of his election from the city's chief administrator Rick Butler.

"I figured someone would probably call. Rick Butler called at around 9:30 p.m. and then a whole bunch of other people called. It was just call after call," said Lem.

He said he had it in his head that if he didn't get in, another capable candidate would.

Of a possible 2,440 voters, only 754 bothered to cast their ballots -- a 31 per cent turnout.

Iqaluit Mayor John Matthews said he was disappointed with the low turn out.

"We had an incredibly large number of people running. It would have made sense the turn out be large, but it was quite small," he said.

Matthews was still happy with the results. He said Sheutiapik and Lem will make strong contributions to the city. The swearing in of the two new councillors will happen at the next council meeting on Nov. 12.