On June 28, Yukoners will know how the rest of the country voted before the territory's polls have closed.

A decision made by Canada's chief electoral officer effectively wipes out any delay in broadcasting election results during the federal election. The decision was announced late last week.

For the first time, Canadians in every part of the country will know how each time zone voted as individual polls close.

Since polls in the Yukon and British Columbia are the last to close, some believe voters may be influenced by the incoming federal results from east of the areas. However, this does not worry local candidates.

'I think it will have a minimal effect,' Shayne Fairman, the campaign manager for Liberal incumbent Larry Bagnell, said today.

'People here tend to vote for who they think will best represent them in Ottawa. Whatever is going on in the rest of the country is secondary.'

Kathy Hanifan, campaign manager for NDP candidate Pam Boyde, agreed with Fairman.

'Yukoners are fairly political and they know what the issues are. There may be a few people who might vote with the winning team, but I don't think it will be significant,' said Hanifan.

Fairman was asked if a potential Conservative win in eastern and central Canada could sway local voters to the other team. Fairman said: 'I think, practically speaking, most people vote on their way home from work anyway, so they probably wouldn't have had a chance to see the results.

'Besides, we think the results will be that the Liberals are winning.'

Conservative candidate James Hartle said he wasn't sure how the eastern results will affect voters.

'It will be a close race that's a given and Yukoners will be watching what happens nationally,' Hartle said today.

'I think the Conservatives will make the government and so Yukoners will want someone who can carry their voice in Ottawa. But it's all yet to be seen.'

The Elections Canada decision to wipe out broadcasting delays was based on a B.C. court ruling that held that section 329 of the Canada Elections Act is contrary to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. As a result, section 329, which prohibits the premature transmission of election results, was no longer in force in B.C.

Raymond Landry, commissioner of Canada Elections, and Jean-Pierre Kingsley, the chief electoral officer of Canada, reviewed the B.C. Supreme Court decision. They announced that to achieve uniform application of the Canada Elections Act across the country, the decision of the B.C. Supreme Court had to be applied across Canada for the current general election.

Hanifan said, even when section 329 is enacted, people in the Yukon can still get early election results.

'We all have relatives that live out east that we can call,' she said.