There’s still no guarantee whether a special election will be held to choose the next vice chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, but that hasn’t stopped at least five people from announcing their intention to run for the seat.

The 2017 General Election will choose the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ next slate of Tribal Council representatives following Election Day on Thursday, Sept. 7.

Election Day is drawing ever nearer for Cherokee Tribal Council, with all 12 seats up for election Thursday, Sept. 7.

Cherokee came one step closer last week to having a special election to fill the vacant vice chief’s seat, but the resolution narrowly passed by Tribal Council still needs a signature from Principal Chief Richard Sneed to become effective.

A needle exchange program will likely be underway in Cherokee by the end of the year following Tribal Council’s unanimous vote to write the existence of such a program into its code.

After months in limbo, the fate of Cherokee’s vacant vice chief seat has been decided — following a narrow vote from Tribal Council, a special election will be held to fill the office.

A census of people living on the Qualla Boundary will soon begin following a unanimous vote from Tribal Council to approve $273,000 for the project.

This month’s two full days of Tribal Council sessions included discussion on everything from research requests to drug policies to power bills, but one topic was noticeably absent from the agenda — the process for selecting a new vice chief.

Cherokee elders will no longer have power, water or sewer bills to worry about following a divided Tribal Council vote July 6 to pass legislation that former Principal Chief Patrick Lambert had put forward during his term.

A resolution that would have negated a 2007 vote to up Tribal Council’s pay by $10,000 was withdrawn last week following debate about what exactly the legislation’s impact would be.