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General election dismissed as solution to council vacancies Chief favours by-election over early general election should council move to fill seats before November By Paul Baswick SIX NATIONS - The two recent band council vacancies left by the passing of District 5 Councillor John Peters Sunday and the removal of District 3 Councillor Les Sowden last week will not be met with an early general election call. Although council has not yet committed to filling the positions before the next scheduled general election in November, 2001, Six Nations Elected Chief Wellington Staats says a by-election, not an early general election, would determine Peters' and Sowden's successors on council. "If there is going to be an election, and I'm saying if, then it would be a by-election," says Staats. Under Section 10 of the Six Nations Elections Code, band council can call a by-election or an early general election to fill council vacancies occurring more than four months before the next scheduled election. The section also requires council to inform the community of its decision to have a by-election or general election within five business days of the vacancy. The five-day period, in Sowden's case, expired yesterday. Sowden was unanimously voted off council on Dec.4, in accordance with section 12 of the Elections Code. That section, in part, states that a councillor will lose his seat if unable to clear a charge of an indictable offence in Canada within (Continued of page 2)