The clock is ticking for anyone wanting to be mayor, councillor or electoral area director.
Under provincial legislation, the nomination period for the Nov. 15 civic elections runs until Oct. 10 at 4 p.m.
“People can start handing in their nomination papers now,” said Patti Bridal, the City of Vernon’s chief election officer.
There will be elections for mayor and council in Vernon, Lumby, Coldstream, Spallumcheen, Armstrong, Enderby and Lake Country.
Positions will also be available for electoral area directors in Cherryville, rural Lumby, BX-Silver Star, BX-Swan Lake, rural Enderby, Falkland and North Westside, as well as for trustees with the Vernon and North Okanagan-Shuswap school districts. The terms are from this December until December 2011.
Nomination documents are available at the city halls, municipal offices and regional district offices of the various jurisdictions.
In the case of Vernon, eight packages have already been picked up, but Bridal isn’t sure how that will translate into people actually filing nomination papers for the election.
“I expect the next couple of weeks will be pretty busy,” she said of the traditional interest in the municipal election.
In the 2005 election, four people sought the mayor’s chair in Vernon, while there were 22 people seeking six council seats.
“Who knows what will happen this time? Twenty-two was quite a high number,” said Bridal.
Presently, the only person who has indicated they will run for Vernon mayor is incumbent Wayne Lippert, while there are three seeking the position in Spallumcheen — Dustin Griffin, incumbent Will Hansma and Guenter Rieger. Longtime councillor Chris Pieper is letting his name stand for mayor in Armstrong.
Anyone wanting to seek public office must be a Canadian citizen, 18 years of age or older and a resident of B.C. for at least six months.
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