Mayor Bev Buckway and Al Fedoriak will go head-to-head as the only Whitehorse mayoral candidates for the Oct. 15 election.

The deadline for nominations for the eight incorporated Yukon municipalities and five local advisory councils was at noon today, with Buckway and Fedoriak as the only candidates on the ticket for mayor of the territory's capital.

Fedoriak became the only challenger when he filed his papers Monday afternoon.

The slate of candidates for the six councillor seats on Whitehorse city council is up to 12 from a meagre eight three years ago.

However, interest in municipal politics is still down substantially from the heady days through the 1990s right up the beginning of this decade.

Five of the six incumbent Whitehorse councillors are running again.

Jan Stick, who garnered the most votes in 2006 – 3,264, or 500 more than her closest competitor – chose not to seek re-election.

Those running in next month's election for Whitehorse city council, in the order they were drawn from the hat shortly after noon, to establish the order they will appear on the ballot, are:

For mayor:

• Bev Buckway;

• Al Fedoriak.

For council:

• Doug Graham (incumbent);

• Graham Lang;

• Janet Brault (also known as Janbro);

• Dave Stockdale (incumbent);

• Skeeter Miller-Wright;

• Jeanine Myhre (incumbent);

• Florence Roberts (incumbent);

• Ranj Pillai;

• David Austin (incumbent);

• Ron Swizdaryk;

• Michael Buurman;

• Betty Irwin.

Incumbents Graham and Myhre were the last to file their papers, arriving at the city council chambers shortly before the noon-hour cutoff.

There was some speculation that Duke Connelly, a former councillor known for his frank, no-holds-barred approach, might be showing up at the last minute, but he didn't, though he did pick up nomination papers.

Since the 2000 election, when former mayor Ernie Bourassa won his first of two consecutive terms after Kathy Watson decided not seek a second term, interest in municipal politics has waned.

In 2000, six people let their name stand for mayor, 32 vied for the six councillor positions, and 51 per cent of eligible voters exercised their right.

Three years later, however, the number of mayoral candidates fell slightly to five, the number of councillor candidates dipped to 16 and voter turnout dropped to 49 per cent.

In 2006, there were four mayoral candidates, just eight for the six councillor seats, and the percentage of eligible Whitehorse residents who cast ballots plummeted to 40 per cent.