Vaughn Palmer: Conservative candidate promises court challenge, but he has to hurry as limit on appeals fast approaching
VICTORIA — The B.C. Conservatives presented evidence Thursday to challenge the NDP’s win in Surrey-Guildford, the closest result in the closest election in provincial history.
Recommended Videos
But that’s a long way from saying the Opposition party will succeed in overturning NDP cabinet minister Garry Begg’s 22-vote win over Conservative candidate Honveer Singh Randhawa and setting up a byelection.
The Conservatives are challenging 45 votes in total, claiming irregularities under the Election Act in how they were cast.
Randhawa initially laid out the evidence in a Jan. 2 complaint to Chief Electoral Officer Anton Boegman, independent overseer of the electoral process in B.C.
“I request (you) to investigate the matter urgently to uphold the integrity of Elections B.C.,” he wrote in part. “This is a reasonable request to ensure transparency and fairness in the electoral process.”
Elections B.C. confirms receipt of the complaint but says only that it is “under review.”
Randhawa, a Surrey lawyer, also intends to challenge the Surrey-Guildford result in B.C. Supreme Court, alleging several contraventions of the Election Act.
The ballots in question, like all ballots, were cast in secret. The Act allows a court to declare the election invalid and the seat vacant if it is persuaded that there were sufficient contraventions of the Act to “materially affect the result.”
Randhawa would presumably have to prove contraventions regarding at least half of the 45 ballots in question, given Begg’s 22-vote margin of victory.
He has to act soon because the legislation allows only three months “after the date of the contravention” to file the necessary application in court.
The case rests on claims that one person voted twice and another 22 voters who cast ballots did not reside in the riding and were thus ineligible.
Then there are 21 ballots cast by mail by the residents of a licensed addictions and substance abuse recovery facility. It is located across the street from an official polling station where the residents could have voted in person.
The Conservatives have compiled affidavits from residents of the facility to back up that aspect of the case. Names and other details were blanked out from the copies of the affidavits provided to reporters.
One affidavit reads in part: “I did not ask the manager or any staff member at the Lodge to order a mail-in ballot on my behalf, nor did I order it by myself.
“I was rushed into marking the ballot. I do not know who I voted for. I marked the ballot where they pointed it and I was led to believe that I had no choice but to mark the ballot, otherwise I feared that I would be kicked out of the house.
“(Someone) from the staff was standing right next to me when I marked the ballot, no one else was around at the time.”
Randhawa, in his letter to Elections B.C., says the affidavits raise potential contraventions of section 256 of the Act, which prohibits intimidation of or interference with voters.
Conservative leader John Rustad presided over release of the material Thursday and said by news release that the 45 votes being challenged “fail even the most basic smell test in a democracy.”
He also disclosed that the Conservative party executive decided not to back Randhawa financially in pursuing what could be a lengthy and expensive court process.
If the case for overturning the result were strong, you’d think the party would have been willing to bankroll it. But when I put that suggestion to Rustad, he sidestepped.
Even if the court case were to succeed in vacating the result in Surrey-Guildford, it would merely set the stage for a byelection to reoccupy the seat.
In the interim, the New Democrats could continue to govern on the strength of their recent agreement with the Greens.
The two Green MLAs have agreed to support the NDP on matters involving the confidence of the house. Their deal gives the government a 48-seat margin over the 44 Conservatives even without Begg.
Rustad, for his part, is demanding the NDP government appoint a B.C. Supreme Court justice to conduct an independent public inquiry into “serious systemic concerns with the election process arising from the 2024 provincial election.”
He says those should include: What happened in Surrey-Guildford. Concerns about Elections B.C.’s management of the election. Plus the impact of changes to the Election Act enacted in 2019 and 2021 by then attorney general David Eby.
The Conservative leader also sees an “urgent need” for proof of citizenship to be included on the documents — driver’s licences and other IDs — used to identify voters in provincial elections.
Premier Eby earlier proposed the appointment of an all-party committee of the legislature to review concerns about the electoral process that arose after the 2024 vote.
“Since then, Eby has done nothing and it is clearly too late for that,” said Rustad, underscoring the premier’s decision to postpone recalling the house until mid-February.
Not likely will the Opposition persuade the premier to appoint a public inquiry when he could simply set up an all-party committee that the NDP could dominate in concert with the Greens.