A Northwest Territories judge has cleared the way for the territory's newly elected MLAs to select a premier, cabinet and speaker, after denying one election candidate a recount of all ballots cast in the Oct. 1 election.
Hay River South candidate Greg McMeekin had asked the N.W.T. Supreme Court to order the recount, alleging that election rules were broken when the results of advance and mobile polls in his district came in after the results for the votes that had been cast on election day.
Those additional votes capped a roller-coaster race in Hay River South, pushing incumbent MLA Jane Groenewegen, with 423 votes, ahead of Marc Miltenberger, with 384 votes. McMeekin collected a total of 10 votes in the election.
In a written ruling released Monday, Supreme Court Justice Ted Richard ruled that McMeekin's request was "frivolous" and "vexatious."
Richard wrote that much of McMeekin's complaint was incomprehensible, and the comprehensible parts were irrelevant to his argument for a recount.
Section 208 of the N.W.T. Elections and Plebiscites Act states that an elector may apply to a judge for a recount of the votes on the basis that a returning officer made a mistake in counting the ballots.
If the court had ruled in McMeekin's favour, it could have halted plans for the MLAs to select a speaker, premier and cabinet this week. That selection process begins Tuesday, when members will choose the speaker by secret ballot.
Once selected, the speaker will chair the territorial leadership committee, comprised of all MLAs, which will meet Wednesday to choose a new premier.
After that, the committee will choose six cabinet ministers, with members drawn equally from the electoral districts in Yellowknife, those north of Great Slave Lake, and those south of the lake.
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