Bob Mackin
According to a letter seen by theBreaker.news, a lawyer for the Conservative Party of B.C. runner-up in Surrey-Guildford is demanding Elections BC resume its investigation of alleged corrupt voting in the Oct. 19 election.
John Rustad (left) and Honveer Singh Randhawa (IG)
Honveer Singh Randhawa’s 103-vote election night win over the NDP’s Garry Begg turned into a 22-vote loss in the Nov. 8 judicial recount. The result gave the NDP a bare, 47-seat majority. Premier David Eby rewarded Begg with appointment as the Solicitor General.
Randhawa found evidence of voting irregularities and provided it to Elections BC on Jan. 2. He also filed a petition Jan. 13 in B.C. Supreme Court, asking a judge to invalidate Begg’s win under the Election Act and order a by-election for the seat.
But, on Jan. 28, Elections BC suspended the investigation pending the outcome of the court case. Randhawa’s lawyer said in a Feb. 10 letter that the agency has the legal authority to resume the investigation.
“Should the Chief Electoral Officer decide not to continue with his investigation, my client hereby demands that he provide his reasoning for failing to do so within seven days of this letter so that his reasoning can be subject to judicial review,” wrote Sunny Uppal of McQuarrie Hunter LLP.
Uppal’s letter, to Elections BC’s law firm, Alexander Holburn Beaudin and Lang LLP, said the Chief Electoral Officer Anton Boegman’s misunderstanding of administrative law stands in the way.
“Contrary to what the Chief Electoral Officer is claiming,” Uppal wrote, “the complaint and petition, even if based on the same facts, are not likely to result in contradictory findings of fact because the purpose and scope of the proceedings is very different, with one potentially resulting in the Oct. 19, 2024 election being invalidated and the other one focusing on such election irregularities not occurring again in the future.”
Further, Uppal said the law does not give the Boegman the power to invalidate an election, but instead make recommendations and issue guidelines.
“In contrast, the Supreme Court of British Columbia’s role in this particular matter is to make ‘findings of fact’ and potentially grant an order invalidating an election.”
Randhawa found 45 voting irregularities, including 21 mail-in votes from the Argyll Lodge addiction recovery house across the street from the polling station at the Guildford Park Secondary School. Randhawa’s investigation also found that the NDP received a $1,400 donation from a person with the same name as Argyll manager Baljit Kandola.
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