Natuashish residents picking new chief, council

Residents of an Innu community in northern Labrador were voting Friday in an election made necessary after a judge ruled the last vote was rife with irregularities.

The election in Natuashish was ordered after the Federal Court of Canada determined that an election held on March 2010 had clashed with "the principles of natural justice."

Among other things, the court heard about a lack of scrutineers in some locations, and even that a ballot box had temporarily wound up in the custody of Simeon Tshakapesh, who was elected chief.

Tshakapesh is facing a challenge from two people: Mary Anne Nui, a training co-ordinator in the coastal community, and former chief Prote Poker, a member of the group that campaigned for a new election.

In the 2010 election, Tshakapesh had defeated Poker by 20 votes.

Federal Court judge Donald Rennie, in a decision that the outgoing council had tried to overturn, identified specific areas of concern in 2010, including the fact that the election was called on short notice, controls over the ballot boxes and a failure to account for how many ballots had been printed.

Voting concludes at 8 p.m. local time.