Coin-toss result scrutinized by NDP brass

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This article was published 20/03/2015 (4215 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The losing candidate is waiting to find out if a coin toss was the proper way to decide the NDP nomination in The Pas.

Florence Duncan said Thursday she expects to get an answer from the NDP head office on her complaint the process last weekend was “deeply unfair.”

Duncan lost the nomination to Amanda Lathlin on Saturday after both received 295 votes on the second ballot. Derek Dyck was eliminated from the contest after the first ballot.

The Opasquia Times reported the NDP executive in The Pas elected to use a coin toss — a loonie — to determine the winner. Lathin won it when it came up tails.

The paper also reported that according to Duncan, both she and Lathin had opposed the coin flip.

In a March 18 letter to NDP provincial secretary Nanci Morrison, obtained by a Winnipeg media outlet, Duncan wrote that she feels betrayed.

“For my candidacy to be so dismissed as to flip a coin to determine a winner, is not only undemocratic and wrong, but disrespectful of both myself and Amanda as nomination candidates and ambassadors of the Manitoba NDP,” the letter said.

Duncan said Thursday she believes one of her supporters leaked her letter.

She is appealing to the NDP executive to quash the result and hold a new nomination vote within the next 10 days.

The Pas is considered a safe NDP seat, so there was strong competition for the nomination. The seat became available when Frank Whitehead resigned May 16 for health reasons.

A date for the byelection has yet to be set. The law says it must be called within a year. The minimum campaign period is 33 days.

The NDP executive was to hold a special meeting Thursday evening to address the outcome of the nomination vote. Party spokesman Ben Johnson said earlier in the day he did not know if the party brass would immediately comment on any decision it makes.

He said normally in the case of a tie vote, the party’s returning officer casts the deciding ballot.

“Because this was a highly competitive race, a returning officer was brought in from outside of the constituency. So that person wasn’t a member of the constituency and thus couldn’t decide by (voting),” Johnson said.

That’s when officials chose the coin toss, he said.

In her letter, Duncan said her supporters were “deeply upset” and felt “disrespected” at the way in which the tie vote was handled.

“My suggestion as a solution to this matter, is for this process to be corrected and to be conducted in a democratic way by calling on the membership of The Pas to fairly and ethically elect the nominee. A run-off vote is the only solution to this matter, in a modern-day democracy,” she said.

Lathlin is the daughter of former NDP MLA and cabinet minister Oscar Lathlin, who died in 2008.

‘For my candidacy to be so dismissed as to flip a coin to determine a winner, is not only undemocratic and wrong, but disrespectful of both myself and Amanda as nomination candidates and ambassadors of the Manitoba NDP’

— Florence Duncan, in a letter to NDP provincial secretary Nanci Morrison

She could not be reached for comment Thursday.

In a Facebook post, Lathlin said the coin-toss result is a “great example to prove that every vote counts. Thanks to everyone who helped out with the nomination process.”

A spokesman for Premier Greg Selinger said he wouldn’t comment on the result because it’s a party matter and before the party executive.

As leader, Selinger is a member of the executive.

The two opposition parties have named their candidates for the byelection. Jacob Nasekapow will represent the Progressive Conservatives while Inez Vystrcil-Spence will be the Liberal standard-bearer.

Opposition Leader Brian Pallister said the coin toss highlights problems within the NDP.

“A coin toss kind of belittles the outcome, I think, and it’s too bad because I understand there was good participation,” he said.

Pallister said a tie at a Tory nomination meeting is decided by the constituency president. The official votes in advance and the ballot is set aside in case it is needed to break a tie.

 

— with files by Larry Kusch

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca