The race to be the next president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. is already shaping up, close to a year before Nunavut beneficiaries will go to the polls.
So far, four potential candidates are thinking of running.
“I have seriously thought about it, and I am planning to run,” Andrew Nakashuk said in a phone interview Friday.
The Pangnirtung resident ran for the position in 2021 and again in 2024, losing first to Aluki Kotierk and then to Jeremy Tunraluk.
The presidency of NTI — the organization that ensures promises made under the Nunavut Agreement are carried out — became vacant after Tunraluk resigned Wednesday following a period of unpaid leave as he was facing an assault charge.
At Tunraluk’s first court appearance, on Jan. 15, the Crown stayed the charge. A stay halts the prosecution of a criminal charge, but the Crown can choose to resume prosecution within a year of entering a stay.
The NTI board of directors voted unanimously to recommend Tunraluk’s removal as he “failed to meet the high standards of conduct expected of Inuit leaders,” the organization’s communications director Ivaluarjuk Merritt said.
On Wednesday, Tunraluk announced his resignation.
Vice-president Paul Irngaut is serving as president in the interim until a new president is elected.
Tunraluk, who was elected to a four-year term as president in December 2024, criticized NTI’s administration for “getting rid of him” and vowed to run in the December byelection.
The 11-month wait until the byelection is “too far,” said Cathy Towtongie, a former MLA and NTI president. She said Friday she is thinking about whether to run.
In the 2024 presidential election, she finished second behind Tunraluk in a four-person race.
The lengthy wait until the byelection will unfairly benefit Irngaut if he chooses to seek the presidency, Towtongie said.
“It will give the vice-president, who’s acting as the president, time to campaign across Nunavut on NTI funds.”
The date of the byelection was determined by the board of directors and coincides with scheduled elections for the two vice-president positions. NTI election rules don’t specify when a byelection must be called after the president’s seat becomes vacant.
Irngaut couldn’t be reached for comment Friday on whether he plans to run in the presidential byelection.
Former MLA Manitok Thompson said she agrees the byelection should have been scheduled for an earlier date.
Thompson said she is thinking about putting her name forward to run.
“I’m just putting feelers out now, so I have to observe what the political environment is first,” she said in a Facebook message Friday.
An NTI representative couldn’t be reached for comment Friday.