SURREY RCMP told The VOICE on Tuesday that they have prioritized their investigation into alleged voting fraud in the municipal election.

The City of Surrey’s Chief Elections Officer Anthony Capuccinello Iraci, told the media on Monday that some of the 160 applications his office had received from voters who wanted to vote by mail were found to be suspicious when they reviewed them last week. He felt there was some unlawful activity taking place. When they contacted the Ministry of Municipal Affairs last Friday about this, they were told to contact the RCMP.

Sgt. Chad Greig told The VOICE that the Chief Elections Officer “raised some concerns of possible unlawful activity in the mail ballot registration process.”

He added that because the matter was time sensitive, “this review and investigation have been prioritized by our Investigative Services Section.”

Punjabi journalist and Wake Up Surrey organizer Gurpreet (Lucky) Singh Sahota had claimed last week that several people had complained that they were being pressured by their boss or some relative to participate in the fraud scheme. He estimated that as many as 15,000 votes could be cast in this fraud scheme that involves misuse of absentee ballots.

Wake Up Surrey filed a complaint with the RCMP and posted their concerns online on Friday and encouraged people who knew anything about this fraud scheme to contact the RCMP. Mayoral candidates over the weekend all condemned the fraud scheme and called on the RCMP to take action.