Lyles casts tie-breaking vote to appoint Edwin Peacock to Tariq Bokhari’s vacant seat, instead of Bokhari’s wife

CHARLOTTE, NC – A familiar face is back on Charlotte City Council to fill the open seat previously occupied by Republican Tariq Bokhari. Edwin Peacock will serve as District 6 representative until the end of the year.

Half the council voted for Krista Bokhari, Tariq Bokhari’s wife. The other half of the council supported Peacock, former councilman. Mayor Vi Lyles broke the tie to appoint Peacock to the open seat.

“Positive impact and improve lives. That’s the mission that I’ve sort of set for myself personally and that’s what I feel like I can do,” Peacock said. “This is a continuation of that service journey.”

Peacock previously served as an at-large council member from 2007 to 2011. He’s still the last republican to be elected to that city wide position. He believes his last experience will be useful this time around.

“That was the last time we had a transit referendum,” Peacock said. “So that’s going to be potentially the biggest local issue coming up is, are we going to have a referendum on our ballot in the fall to help us to expand our our capacity to get revenue to expand a transit system.”

This is the first time in recent memory where a council of majority democrats were forced to appoint a republican candidate. Half the council including District 5 Republican Ed Driggs supported Krista Bokhari, Tariq Bokhari’s wife for the position. She has previously run for office in NC.

“I would say she’s probably a little kinder and gentler than Tariq. So people supported that, and many of my Republican friends also supported her. But there was also a group on council that felt that a former council member had an advantage by virtue of having done the job and could hit the ground running,” Councilman Driggs said. “I’m looking forward to it. I think he brings a stabilizing influence because he is a veteran, always a very smart guy.”

Even without the unanimous votes from his colleagues, Peacock says he’s coming in ready to work for the next six months.

“I’m just going to have to obviously build the relationships that we have,” Peacock said. “I hope that just together, we’re not we’re not finding ourselves going down dead ends, and we’re focusing on moving forward.”

Peacock is coming in during a busy time. Council will start voting on the $3.6 billion dollar budget on May 26th. Peacock will be sworn in at the Government Center on May 20th at 2:30pm.