(Photo courtesy of Ben Powless)
APTN National News
TORONTO–Shawn Atleo won re-election Wednesday after three rounds of voting gave him another three year mandate as the head of the Assembly of First Nations.
Atleo landed 341 votes to pass the required 60 per cent mark to claim victory.
Mi’kmaq lawyer and Ryerson professor Pam Palmater came in second on all three votes finishing with 141. She landed 107 votes on the second ballot and 95 votes on the first ballot.
Shawn Atleo missed the magic 60 per cent mark for re-election by three votes on the second ballot.
Atleo’s opponents could not gather enough support to knock him off despite leveling heated criticism that he was too close to the Conservative government and not listening enough to chiefs.
After the second ballot, Mohawk activist Ellen Gabriel dropped off the ballot, after getting 17 votes, along with former Roseau River First Nation chief Terry Nelson, ended with 25 votes. Both threw their support behind Palmater.
Former Treaty 3 grand chief Diane Kelly also withdrew from the race after the second ballot, but released her supporters to back their own chosen candidate.
That left Erasmus and Palmater challenging Atleo.
Erasmus managed 30 votes after the third ballot. He garnered 34 on the second ballot and 29 on the first ballot.
Can’t wait to see which Chiefs demonstrate the good sense to back away from the colonial controlled AFN. First Nation individuals right across corpcanada are excluded from voting for the National Chief (sic).
It should never have got off the ground based on that principle alone but hey, it’s government funded…so *poof* by magic smoke it was set up.