The community has spoken: elected councillors will be limited to a maximum of two consecutive terms.
That’s just one of the changes that will officially be made to the Six Nations Election Code on Aug. 31, after a community vote on the changes during elected council’s Annual General Meeting at the community hall last Thursday.
The changes come ahead of this fall’s general election.
Voters overwhelmingly agreed that potential candidates for elected council demonstrate some previous community involvement, with 74 people voting yes, while only 14 said it wasn’t necessary.
When it comes to term limits, 40 people voted that councillors should only be allowed to serve two consecutive terms. Twenty-one people said the limit should be three terms, while 23 people said there should be no term limits.
Voters also overwhelmingly believe that the membership should be able to choose any option they wish when it comes to voting for chief and council, with 38 saying yes to in-person, only seven saying yes to electronic voting, and another seven saying yes to mail-in ballots. Fifty people said membership should be allowed to vote using all of those methods.
The community also wants to go back to having 12 councillors instead of the current nine. Thirty-nine people voted to remain at nine councillors, while 49 people said there should be 12 councillors.
Election code voters were almost evenly split on whether or not the electoral officer should be an Indigenous or non-Indigenous person, with 22 saying yes to the CEPO being non-Indigenous, as long as they are qualified, and 23 saying no. But a large portion of voters – 42 people – said not only should the CEPO be Indigenous but they should also be a Six Nations member.
There were 89 voters with one completely spoiled ballot that was torn up and turned in to CEPO Lori Harris.
