Candidates vying for a seat on Nanaimo council can formally declare bids beginning this week.
The City of Nanaimo will accept nomination packages for candidates between May 23 and June 2 for the upcoming civic byelection this July.
The byelection, set for July 8, will look for a new councillor to fill a seat left vacant after the resignation of Coun. Wendy Pratt. The term will be for just over a year with the general municipal election set for October 2018. Nomination packages can be picked up at the city’s legislative services and must be submitted and delivered by 4 p.m. June 2.
“May 23, 2017, starts off the period of nominations for the vacant City of Nanaimo councillor position,” said Sheila Gurrie, acting city clerk for the City of Nanaimo and chief election officer, in a press release. “We look forward to accepting nominations by appointment in order to ensure the process runs smoothly.”
“We look forward to accepting nominations by appointment in order to ensure the process runs smoothly,” said Sheila Gurrie, acting city clerk for the City of Nanaimo and chief election officer, in a press release.
The appointment is to ensure the package is filled out correctly and not missing anything, according to Sky Snelgrove, deputy chief election officer, who said they’ll also talk to the candidate about how they want their name on the ballot.
Each candidate must be nominated by at least two ‘qualified’ nominators — in other words, electors of the City of Nanaimo, according to a city press release. A person can be nominated, elected and hold office if they are a Canadian citizen, 18 years of age or older on general voting day, a resident of B.C. for at least six months before the day nomination papers are filed and not disqualified by any enactment from being nominated for, elected to or holding office of the municipality, or otherwise disqualified by law.
Gurrie will declare candidates June 12, when names will also go up online. There will be 10 polling stations this year, and advanced voting is tenatively planned for June 28 and July 5, from 8 a.m.-8 p.m. at Nanaimo Alliance Church. So far, two nomination packages have been picked up.
For byelection information, please visit http://cnan.ca/2qkosjS, and for advance elector registration please visit http://cnan.ca/2qkicbT.
To make an appointment to file the nomination package, please call legislative services at 250-755-4405.