* As posted on http://canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada

NWT voters go to polls Monday; advance polls suggest high turnout

By SUZANNE BEAUBIEN

YELLOWKNIFE (CP) - Rule changes and some hotly contested ridings translated
into heavy early voter turnout for Monday's general election in the
Northwest Territories.

A total of 1,554 voters across the N.W.T. cast ballots before polling day -
almost 10 per cent of the electorate. "I think the candidates are
getting the votes out," said David Hamilton, chief returning officer,
who noted eight candidates were battling for the Nahendeh seat left vacant
by cabinet minister Jim Antoine.

This election is also the first in which Northwest Territories voters had
the option of casting their ballots during a 10-day period instead of the
usual one-day advance poll. Mobile polls were also used to allow home-bound
people the opportunity to vote, said Hamilton.

Geri Elkin, assistant returning officer for Yellowknife Centre, also lives
in the riding and said all seven candidates knocked on her door at least
three times. "I think that the candidates have been a lot more active
and aggressive this election," said Elkin.

Seven candidates were vying for just 1,266 votes in Yellowknife Centre,
including 18-year old Dan Wong and the first woman to serve in the assembly
almost 30 years ago, Lena Pedersen. In the last territorial election, only
631 people voted in the riding, which traditionally has had low voter
participation.

The Northwest Territories and Nunavut are the only legislatures in Canada
that run a non-partisan, consensus government in which each candidate runs
as an independent. After the assembly is elected, members choose a Speaker
and premier and decide who will fill the seven cabinet positions. The
remaining members act as the opposition.

Members are to choose the premier Dec. 10 by secret ballot. The current
premier, Stephen Kakfwi, is not running again. Of the 19 ridings in the
Northwest Territories, five have already had the incumbents acclaimed. Two
of those incumbents - Joe Handley of Yellowknife and Floyd Roland of Inuvik
- are seen as early front-runners for the premier's chair.

Key issues during the campaign have been the high cost of living and the
territory's revenue sharing deal with Ottawa. Although the N.W.T. is
getting wealthier thanks to mining and oil and gas development, the federal
government collects all northern resource revenue. And, because of the
structure of transfer payments to the N.W.T., every dollar the territory
raises on its own costs it $1.04 in federal revenue.

The territorial government, however, still must pay for the downside of
economic expansion by covering the cost to fix crumbling roads and dealing
with social ills such as the increase in crime in Yellowknife, where half
the population lives. "As long as Ottawa holds the decision-making
authority on economic development, we will always be dancing to Ottawa's
tune," Great Slave riding candidate Bill Braden said during the
campaign.

The hotly contested ridings extend outside Yellowknife. With just 481
eligible voters, the smallest riding of Tu Nedhe also has seven candidates
running, including incumbent Steven Nitah. Voter turnout has traditionally
been high in this riding, which contains the N.W.T.'s oldest permanent
settlement of Fort Resolution.

In the Deh Cho riding, former Deh Cho grand chief Mike Nadli is challenging
Michael McLeod's bid for re-election.  The Deh Cho First Nation is the only
aboriginal group that has not yet signed on to the Mackenzie Valley
Pipeline Project. Deh Cho territory covers 40 per cent of the proposed
1,400-kilometre natural gas pipeline from the Mackenzie Valley into
Alberta.

In the 1999 election, 71 per cent of registered voters cast their ballot.


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