Bob Mackin
More allegations of illegal campaigning during the Oct. 20 election.
Video clips obtained by theBreaker show promotion of NPA candidates near the polling station on the grounds of the Ross Street Sikh Temple in South Vancouver.
Local election laws prohibit attempts to influence, induce or impede voters within 100 metres of a polling station. The maximum penalty is a $5,000 fine and/or a year in jail.
In the video clips below, a pickup truck plastered with signs for NPA mayoral candidate Ken Sim, city council candidate David Grewal and park board candidate Pall Beesla is seen driving slowly in the parking lot as people come and go from the nearby polling station.
Beesla, a Coast Mountain bus driver, is the senior assistant treasurer for the Khalsa Diwan Society, which is based at the temple.
In the second clip, according to two Punjabi speakers contacted by theBreaker, a woman is asked by a man if she knows who she wants to vote for. She is then offered a piece of paper and advised to vote for Grewal and Beesla — “Punjabi boys” — and “a Chinese guy.” The latter is an apparent reference to Sim. The man also advised the woman not to show the paper to anyone inside the voting station.
Sim lost to Kennedy Stewart by less than 1,000 votes. He conceded on Oct. 22.
Beesla finished 11th, 10,000 votes shy of winning a seat on the seven-member park board. Grewal, was also 11th, but nearly 1,700 votes below fellow NPA candidate Sarah Kirby-Yung, who won the last available seat on city council.
City hall’s election office is already investigating a complaint about an Oct. 16 news conference by Stewart that was held at city hall’s Helena Gutteridge Plaza. Stewart’s campaign manager, Neil Monckton, said the event was held 108.74 metres from the entrance of city hall, according to a Google Map.
Update (Oct. 25): City hall spokeswoman Jhenifer Pabilano said that both the Ross Street and Gutteridge Plaza incidents remain under investigation.
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