Over the past few months, there has been a lot of talk in the community about revising the present Election Code which was established in 1995 and I found it interesting that your recent editorial spoke to these same ideas that have been discussed in the community.
In the fall of last year – 2017, the Six Nations Elected Council made a public call for persons to sit on a new Election Code Committee. The ECC was established in September and the Election Code Committee met for the first time in November 2017.
The mandate for the Six Nations Election Code Committee is to review and recommend proposed amendments to the Six Nations of the Grand River Election Code, and in doing so, the ECC shall proactively and comprehensively engage all eligible voters to ensure proposed amendments reflect the concerns and issues of the electorate as a whole.
The next SNEC election will be called for the fall of 2019 and our Committee is preparing to meet that deadline.
There will be twelve community meetings between early April and November at which community members can express their views on potential changes to the Election Code. Information as to times, dates and locations will be coming out to your mailboxes and other locations very soon.
There will be a community vote on the final 2019 Election Code in the spring of 2019 so as to be ready for use in the election in the fall.
Our committee would like to hear from as many community people as possible so we appeal to the Six Nations public to come out and share your ideas.
Claudine VanEvery-Albert
