Swearing in of Chief Electoral Officer, Loretta Metzger. Photo courtesy of mnselection.ca
It will be a wide open race for the job of president of Metis Nation Saskatchewan.
The vote will be held May 27th. The current president, Robert Doucette, is not seeking re-election, while Vice President Gerald Morin says he is running only as vice president.
The job of making sure everything is ready for the vote is now in the hands of Loretta Metzger. She was appointed to the position last month after the previous electoral officer resigned because of health reasons.
Metzger says everything is falling into place nicely and she is getting a lot of help setting up the election. The website for candidates is: www.mnselection.ca. More staff will be hired over the coming weeks.
Metzger is an elections expert, and expects this one to go off without a hitch.
“It has actually been going pretty smooth,” she said. “I have been very happy with the way things are going.”
This will be the first election since 2012, but it has been delayed because of political infighting and the failure to hold regional legislative assemblies as required by the constitution of Metis Nation Saskatchewan.
There has also been an open and often ugly feud between President Robert Doucette and Vice President Gerald Morin.
Metzger says the politics behind the vote is of no concern to her, but she does expect it has generated a lot of interest in the election outcome.
“Oh, I think there is lots of interest, I am expecting to have a good number of candidates running and lots of interest in this election,” she said.
Nomination papers can be filed between April 22nd and 27th.
About 50,000 people are eligible to vote. Voting age is only 16 for the Metis election.