Questions remain about who voted in second ballot for NDP leader

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This article was published 09/03/2015 (4098 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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Less than 24 hours after NDP delegates confirmed him as their leader, Premier Greg Selinger was back behind his desk.

One question still lingering over Sunday’s vote count is what happened to the 204-vote difference between the first and second ballots.

On the first ballot which saw longtime Thompson MLA Steve Ashton drop off, 1,689 delegates cast ballots, including mail-ins from five remote constituencies.

On the second ballot, which saw Selinger win by 33 votes over Seine River MLA Theresa Oswald, only 1,485 voted.

NDP officials offer a couple of explanations for the difference.

One, after Ashton lost and released his delegates to vote for either Selinger or Oswald, a number decided not to vote at all, and either left the convention or just watched the outcome from the sidelines.

A second explanation involved the mail-in, preferential ballots. A number who supported Ashton most likely filled in an ‘X” for Ashton on the mail-in rather than rank-ordering preferences. In that event, they “dropped off” the second ballot.

A third explanation is that when it became a battle between Selinger and Oswald, a number of automatic and union delegates didn’t vote. There were only five spoiled ballots on the second vote.

Opposition Leader Brian Pallister said today he believes many of Ashton’s supporters didn’t vote on the second ballot.

“I know also that a lot of people walked out after the (first ballot) result was announced… frustrated, fed up,” he said.

Pallister said that regardless of the final outcome, and the fact Selinger only earned 51 per cent of delegate votes, the NDP is no better off now than it was before the leadership vote.

Pallister also said the delegate system as used by the NDP heavily favours unions, not rank-and-file party members. That issue came up for debate on Saturday in two resolutions, but was referred to a party committee for study after a motion by Manitoba Federation of Labour president Kevin Rebeck was approved by delegates.

Pallister said for Selinger to win the endorsements of the province’s big unions, and the last-second support of the United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg, the premier and his officials would have most likely have had to negotiate something for their help. The fire fighters, with 14 delegates, had originally agreed to support Oswald on second ballot, but instead crossed the floor to Selinger because Oswald, a former health minister, “was too close to paramedics.”

“They would have directed their votes to go in support of Premier Selinger for a reason,” Pallister said of the union support. “They didn’t do it for a lark. So I think the premier needs to tell Manitobans what he negotiated.”

Liberal Leader Rana Bokhari said that with Greg Selinger reaffirmed as NDP leader, Manitobans can expect more of the same from the provincial government.

Selinger has “a long record of overseeing government mismanagement, taking money out of the pockets of hard-working Manitobans,” she said.

Under his watch, the government has also “failed to support Manitobans who need it most,” she added.

“Really, it’s just same old, same old,” she said.

After 15 years in office, the NDP is presiding over health-care and education systems that are facing significant challenges, and the province’s roads are in disrepair, Bokhari said.

“They’ve had a lot of time to fix these issues. They have failed.”