Premier Paul Okalik asked for the five-year-old territory's first parliament to be dissolved on January 16.
The territory operates on a consensus government system with no political parties; the premier is subsequently chosen by and from the MLAs. There were 11,285 registered voters at the time of the election call.
Issues
Issues at the election included:
the size of the civil service;
the territory's Human Rights Act;
education;
language and culture.
Results
Elections were held in 18 of the 19 electoral districts. Rankin Inlet North acclaimed its MLA. The following is a list of the districts with their candidates.
In the main, Nunavummiut decided to stay with their present legislature. The premier, four cabinet ministers, and three other MLAs were re-elected; five incumbents were defeated, including former speaker of the house Kevin O'Brien. Only two women were elected to the 19-seat legislature.
Premier Paul Okalik was given a firm endorsement by the voters in his riding. He faced a strong challenge for the premier's job from Tagak Curley, who was acclaimed to his seat. However, Okalik was returned to the premiership on March 5, 2004, by the new legislature. [1]
Miscellaneous
For the first time, residents of several tiny, isolated communities were able to vote by satellite phone.
Voter turnout was nearly 90%; in 8 of the 18 ridings it was higher than 100% (as high as 134% in Kugluktuk) since there was no door-to-door enumeration and voter registration is permitted at the polling station.
