Omer Moghrabi has become Lac La Biche County's mayor-elect, earning 969 out of a total 2,413 votes. Runner-up Robert Richard was not far behind with 900 votes.
A longtime businessman is on his way to becoming a first-time mayor.
Omer Moghrabi has become Lac La Biche County’ s mayor-elect, earning 969 out of a total 2,413 votes. Runner-up Robert Richard was not far behind with 900 votes.
“This was the people’ s election, and the people have spoken,” Moghrabi said. “I have a passion and a belief in our county and I am committed to seeing the entire community grow and reach its full potential. I would like to acknowledge all of the other candidates that stepped forward. It’ s no small decision to throw your hat in the ring.”
The next-closest contender, Alex Broadbent, reaped 314 votes. Candidates Phylis Gauthier and Jerry Tratch brought up the rear with 167 and 63, respectively.
The results of this mayoral by-election will become official on Friday. The County says that a date for Moghrabi’ s swearing-in as mayor has not been determined yet.
Moghrabi celebrated his unofficial win at the Kinsmen Hall in the hamlet of Lac La Biche. He began his victory speech by reciting messages of support that he had received from various people.
“The positive messages I received over the past weeks made me work harder and be more determined,” he said. “Positive support from everyone has been overwhelming. It reflects what we are as a county and as a community together.”
Moghrabi told the POST what he intends to focus on in his first days in the mayor’ s chair.
“I think one of the things is getting familiar with the Council, getting familiar with the operations,” he said. “One of the major things is we do have to do some hiring of key positions in the County, with the loss of quite a few employees. I’ d like to also start to get back some of the committees we had that used the potential expertise that we have in the entire County. And this is the entire County. There’ s no east or west-it’ s the County.”
Throughout his campaign, Moghrabi, who is a veteran sports coach, stressed the importance of teamwork, saying that County Council needs to cohere and act like a team in order for the County to reach its full potential.
Richard, who lost what was very much a neck-and-neck race by just 69 votes, says he anticipated it would be a close finish.
“At the doors, there was a lot of negativity out there and general discontent with Council,” he said. “I bore the brunt of that.”
Although it was a close race, he told the POST that he will not ask for a recount, saying that the difference between his Moghrabi’ s votes is not large enough to warrant it.
Despite being out of the running for the mayor’ s chair, the veteran politician is unsure whether or not he will campaign to regain his old seat representing Ward 2 on Council.
“In the next couple of days, I’ ll explore my options. That’ s one of them-there are others,” he said. “Right now, it’ s a little early.”
Nomination Day for Ward 2 councillor hopefuls is July 28, while Election Day will be August 25.
Third-place candidate Alex Broadbent says he was disappointed with the by-election results but still enjoyed the campaign.
“It’ s a democratic system and I’ ll back the democratic system any time of the day,” he told the POST. “I thought people were ready for a change but I guess the powers that be had different ideas.”
Broadbent commended the other candidates for being courteous and professional in what turned out to be a contentious race.
“It was a clean campaign,” he said. “That’ s the way all campaigns should be.”
Fourth-place candidate Phylis Gauthier, the sole woman in the race, was also disappointed, but thanked all of her supporters.
“I’ m thankful to all of the people who voted for me and really grateful for all of the support that I’ ve received,” she said. “I thought the race was run to the very best of everyone’ s abilities. I’ m proud that I did what I could.”
Gauthier says she’ s not sure whether or not she would campaign again.
She thanked local media for their coverage of the campaign period and election results, and extended her congratulations to Moghrabi, saying she wishes him well and hopes he honours his commitments.
Although he came in last with only 63 votes, Jerry Tratch says he didn’ t lose.
“There are four winners. The (four of us) are winners because we stepped up to the plate to make the difference a difference in the County,” he said, adding that the by-election’ s results were an indicator that County residents didn’ t want to see change.
Looking back on the campaign period, Tratch says he had an enjoyable experience and would run again “if (the County is) not where I want to see it by having a better quality of life for residents.”
-with files from Andrew Bates
