Intertribal Life Newspaper -

Vancouver-The 2018 Assembly of First Nations Annual General Assembly was held on July 24 to July 26 at the Vancouver Convention Centre. A highlight on the agenda was the election of a National Chief.

A total of 522 chiefs attended the Assembly, along with their proxies, to vote for a National Chief. It took a second ballot to declare incumbent, Perry Bellegarde as winner of this year's election. Five candidates ran for national chief, including Kathryn Whitecloud, Russ Diabo, Miles Richardson, Sheila North and Bellegarde. The national chief must secure 60 percent of the votes to be declared the winner.

Bellegarde is a Canadian First Nations activist and politician, who was first elected as national chief of the Assembly of First Nations on December 10, 2014. A member of the Little Black Bear First Nation in Saskatchewan, he has served as chief of Little Black Bear, as chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations and as the Saskatchewan regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations.