Straining to explain candidate shortfall

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This article was published 30/03/2016 (3485 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The provincial Liberals, who promised to field candidates in all 57 ridings, are now struggling to explain how Elections Manitoba rejected five of their nominations.

Two other candidates, one from the Green Party of Manitoba and a Manitoba Party member, were also turfed by Elections Manitoba Wednesday.

Election officials said they couldn’t remember that many prospective candidates getting rejected, especially from a mainstream party.

But a testy Liberal leader, Rana Bokhari, said neither she nor the party is worried about what she dismissed as “technical issues, not ethical ones,” and with considerable frustration and impatience told a reporter, “This isn’t rocket science. You don’t seem to understand this, and I don’t know how to make you understand this. If you need to do some personal research, I suggest you do it,” Bokhari said in an interview.

“End of story,” she declared several times.

The Liberals lost candidates in Arthur-Virden, Lac du Bonnet, and Agassiz ridings for using post office box numbers rather than residential addresses for some of the voters who had signed nomination papers. The Lakeside candidate did not turn in papers by Tuesday’s 1 p.m. deadline.

While Elections Manitoba had previously accepted Joanne Levy as a candidate in Gimli, it revoked her nomination after the NDP complained Levy had worked as an enumerator in another riding prior to filing her papers.

Once Levy’s situation became public, officials dug into other candidates and learned the Green candidate in Transcona and Manitoba Party candidate in Tyndall Park had also worked as enumerators in this election period, said Alison Mitchell, an Elections Manitoba spokeswoman.

“We’re talking about rural Manitoba. The bottom line, it’s about signatures; we move on,” Bokhari said with growing impatience.

Bokhari said Levy had resigned as a candidate: “It’s not five candidates (disqualified), so let’s get your facts straight,” she said.

However, Mitchell said Elections Manitoba revoked Levy’s certificate of acceptance, and Levy had not resigned.

Bokhari became increasingly irritated when asked whether the Liberals had anyone in overall charge of seeing candidates got nominated properly, and why addresses were an issue in some rural ridings but not in others.

“Rules are rules. We believe in abiding by the law,” Bokhari said.

She said when the candidates brought in their papers, local returning officers approved them and they were “at least given somewhat of a green light,” only to have the papers rejected by Elections Manitoba’s Winnipeg headquarters.

Not so, said Mitchell.

“The returning officers wouldn’t give them any assurances. They come to our office for final verification,” she said.

‘We need to know where you live, not where you pick up your mail’– Elections Manitoba spokeswoman Alison Mitchell, on why three Liberal candidates are among five who will not appear on ballots April 19

“We need to know where you live, not where you pick up your mail.

“It states on the form it must be residential addresses,” she said, and every rural property has an address: “There are sections, townships, ranges, lots, blocks. A post office box can never be correlated with an individual.”

Mitchell said prospective candidates and their campaign teams receive reams of information, with plenty of examples showing what’s required, and they’re encouraged to ask for help: “A large part of our mandate is to provide assistance,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell said candidates sign a declaration that they are not disqualified from running and are expected to have read the rules before signing. “It is fairly clearly spelled out,” she said.

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That includes not being allowed to be both an enumerator and candidate in the same election, regardless where each position occurs. “She (Levy) worked as an enumerator; that would disqualify you as a candidate.”

Similarly, election materials given each candidate make it clear what’s required for a legal nomination signature, she said. It’s never a good idea to wait until the last minute when problems can not be rectified, Mitchell said.

Nominations closed at 1 p.m. Tuesday.

The NDP and Conservatives have a full slate of 57, the Greens 31, Manitoba Party 16 and Communists six.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca