Oromocto one of 9 councils acclaimed in New Brunswick municipal election

People in Oromocto won't have to go to the polls to vote for their new municipal government.

The mayor and every seat on the town council have been acclaimed.

It's one of nine communities in the province where every position on the council is unchallenged, but that's an improvement from the last municipal election.

"Sometimes you look at it negatively, saying 'Oh, people don't care'," said Mayor Bob Powell. "But I just look at it on the positive, we must be doing a good job."

"So that's what I told my council, if we were doing a really bad job there'd be uproars, all these people would want to run against you."

Four of the acclaimed councillors currently sit on council, one is returning after a break, and one councillor is new.

Powell said it helps the candidates financially.

"You don't have to buy any signs or posters or fliers to give out."

It also takes the pressure off when it comes to COVID restrictions.

"Everyone was a little confused about what we could do and what we couldn't do while we're campaigning, but this way we didn't have to worry about it," he said.

The other eight acclaimed councils are in Bertrand, Centreville, Harvey, Nackawic, Riverside-Albert, Riviere-Vert, Rogersville and Upper Miramichi.

It's an improvement on the 2016 election, when there were 17 municipal councils elected by acclamation.

Chief Electoral Officer Kim Poffenroth said Elections NB had been seeing the number of completely acclaimed councils shrink slowly since 2008, but this year, itreally dropped.

"It's been a difficult year for everyone and people are realizing the important decisions that are made by all levels of government," she said. "It's not just the federal government and provincial government that are making important decisions, but decisions are made at the local level that impact people's day to day lives."

Poffenroth said she hopes people in acclaimed communities will still go to the polls to cast votes for district eduction councils and the regional health authorities.

"My concern obviously is that elections for municipal councils tend to drive turnout and that may actually negatively impact the turnout for elections for those very important positions," she said.

"So I would like people to remember that whether you're living in a rural area that isn't part of a municipality or you're living in those municipalities where your councils are acclaimed, there are still important positions that are being voted on on May 10th."

Advanced polls are open May 1 and May 3, except in areas that are currently under lockdown.