DEH CHO
Two former MLA candidates and one official agent from the Nahendeh electoral district have been charged with election reporting offences related to the 2015 territorial general election.

Candidates Dennis Nelner and Arnold Hope, as well as Hope's official agent Gaylene Moses, have been charged under sections of the Elections and Plebiscites Act that refer to post-election financial reporting.

All three face similar charges, which come more than a year after the election concluded.

Hope and Nelner have both been charged under a subsection of the act that imposes a $250 fine for failing to file certain documents in time.

It is unclear which documents were not filed. In an e-mail, Elections NWT spokesperson Adrienne Cartwright declined to comment.

"We will not be providing comments on any charges while they are before the courts," she stated.

A package of candidates' financial reports from the 2015 elections, accessible from the Elections NWT website, includes a report from Nelner, which describes contributions from his wife, Trudy Nelner, and from one other donor for a total of $1,750.

The vast majority of the money came from his wife.

In an e-mail, Nelner said he had already sent "everything I had" to Elections NWT.

"I dont know what value Elections NWT is trying to achieve here," Nelner stated, adding that he had quit his campaign halfway through.

"This (is) wasting court time and taxpayers' money to achieve what end?"

Nelner stated there was "nothing material" for him to report, since all the funds for his campaign came from personal and family sources.

"I think Elections NWT should just back away if the candidate has less than $5,000 to report. It would be a lot less cost and red tape in the long run," he stated.

Hope and Moses have also been charged under a subsection that lists the documents required for a candidate's financial report.

Contravention of that particular subsection constitutes a major election offence under the act, which carries with it a maximum fine of $5,000, a year in jail, or both.

People convicted of a major election offence are also disqualified from running and voting in elections for five years.

Cartwright declined to comment on why the charges took one year to be laid, or whether that is a normal wait period for charges under the act.