Métis voters say they're being frozen out of today's election for chief and council in Fort Good Hope, N.W.T.

Under a new custom election code, only those with First Nations status — as defined by the Indian Act — can cast ballots in the chief's election.

"We don't have a vote," says Winston McNeely, president of the Métis Local 54 Lands Corporation.

His family moved to Fort Good Hope in the fall of 1956.

McNeely has voted in past elections and can still cast his vote for councillors.

He says a separate election should be held for chief, if that's what it would take to make the vote open to all residents.

He's made a formal complaint to the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs.

This is the first election in which band members who don't live in the community are allowed to vote for chief.