Recount called off and Carcross/Tagish chief officially re-elected
Announcement ends week of uncertainty over Chief Lynda Dickson's re-election win
Lynda Dickson has been re-elected chief of the Carcross/Tagish First Nation after a candidate reportedly withdrew their request for a recount from the June 30 election.
In a news release posted to its Facebook page just after midnight Tuesday, the First Nation said a candidate had withdrawn their request for a recount and Dickson would be officially sworn in as the First Nation's Haa Shaa du Hen, or chief.
The announcement ends a week of uncertainty over the status of the election results in the First Nation south of Whitehorse, near the Yukon-B.C. border.
Dickson won the election with 109 votes — just five votes ahead of runner-up Danny Cresswell. At the time, the chief electoral officer Tanya Silverfox told CBC a recount would only happen if the margin was three votes or less.
But the First Nation later announced the executive council, in co-ordination with Silverfox, had decided the five-vote separation warranted a recount.
The First Nation did not say which candidate asked for the recount, but now that the request had been withdrawn, it will go ahead with Dickson's swearing-in ceremony later this week.
Dickson was first elected chief in a byelection last summer after Andy Carvill was ousted in the wake of sexual harassment allegations with under a year left in his term. Under the Carcross/Tagish constitution, the incoming chief serves the remainder of the term before holding a new election.
Back in July 2019, Dickson pledged to care for the land and water, telling an audience of more than 100 people that there's "only so little one person can achieve, but mountains can be moved if we work together."