THE NDP said on Wednesday that British Columbians on Tuesday learned that a campaign organizer for Surrey-Fleetwood BC Liberal candidate Garry Thind was soliciting personal information of voters to request mail-in ballots “over the internet” to “gather [a] good number of voters.” (Global News)

Requesting a ballot or voting on someone’s behalf violates the corrupt voting provision of the Elections Act. But the BC Liberals’ dismissal and quick denial doesn’t add up, said the NDP.

[Elections BC in a statement on Tuesday said: “At this stage we have no evidence to suggest that requests for vote-by-mail packages were actually made on a voter’s behalf.” It added: “We have contacted [Garry] Thind’s campaign and the BC Liberal Party, who have denied the allegations and stated that no voter information was received and no requests for vote-by-mail packages were made on behalf of voters.”]

According to the NDP, here’s what we still don’t know:

1. There are two administrators in the group: the organizer who made the request, and Thind. What exactly did Thind tell the BC Liberals about his involvement in and knowledge of this activity?
2. Did Thind immediately correct [Baldeep] Jhand and instruct his volunteers not to engage in this activity?
3. Did any of the other 95 people in the group instruct volunteers not to engage in this activity?
4. Will the BC Liberals release the full chain of Whatsapp messages?
5. Will the BC Liberals immediately provide the names and contact information for all members of the group to Elections BC?
6. What is Jhand’s role in the campaign? Was he fired?
7. Have the BC Liberals spoken directly with everyone in the group? 
8. If not, how can they claim that no volunteers have engaged in this activity?

Ravi Kahlon, B.C. NDP candidate for Delta-North, pointed out on Wednesday that there was no need for any candidate to be collecting a person’s social insurance number and their health care card number, adding that you would collect these things if you were trying to get a ballot.

He said he found it hard to believe that Thind did not know about the message that was sent to close to 100 people in a group chat in which he was one of the administrators. 

Documentation:

BC NDP complaint to Elections BC

Screenshots of the Whatsapp messages

READ ALSO: