Late Swan River ballots counted

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This article was published 07/03/2015 (3951 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE NDP’s election-of-leader committee counted about 30 late-arriving delegate-selection ballots for the Swan River constituency Thursday night — after first refusing to budge from a Tuesday deadline earlier in the week.

Officials with Greg Selinger’s camp said the additional ballots gave the premier an even bigger majority of delegates from the western Manitoba riding, increasing his total by one.

According to Selinger’s campaign, the premier now has the backing of 21 of 22 Swan River delegates, with the remaining one supporting leadership challenger Theresa Oswald.

Oswald’s camp says she has the backing of two of 22 delegates. It previously claimed three.

On Thursday, it was revealed dozens of ballots were not counted because the party did not leave enough time for a second mail-in ballot to arrive.

A second vote in the constituency was needed after accusations of voter interference were made against Selinger supporter ex-finance minister Rosann Wowchuk.

New ballots had to be sent to the western Manitoba constituency’s 220 members. They were given a postmark deadline of Feb. 27 to return them. But the party decided to count them on Tuesday evening, only two business days after they were to be mailed.

After an appeal by the Oswald camp, the NDP election committee relented and decided to count ballots that arrived after the initial count Tuesday.