Sunday, May 28, 2006

Is there a constitutional expert in the house?

Anonymous said ...

Why was there confusion over the cutoff date for submitting candidate eligibility challenges - was it 5:00 p.m. May 19 or 21, 2006?

Confused?
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Dear Confused,

We're trying to unravel that one ourselves. If you look at the Notice of Election posted in the Winnipeg Free Press April 30, 2006 it states:

"Within seven (7) days from the close of nominations, any elector may submit a written challenge with necessary documents or other material that support the challenge to the right of a candidate to run for the Office to which he/she has been nominated."

The close of nominations was May 12, 2006 which would clearly make the cutoff May 19. However, the Election By-laws embedded in the MMF Constitution are apparently stated such that May 21, 2006 could reasonably be interpreted as the deadline. Believe it or not we couldn't find a copy of such a pivotal document re-produced anywhere on the Federation's website! You'd think the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer would have a dedicated link somewhere on www.mmf.mb.ca with that information available. Could someone with the exact wording covering candidate challenges please send it to us?

Potentially this could have serious ramifications. For example, if there is indeed a legitimate timing issue Dave Charette would be well within his rights to launch an appeal, however, it would likely have to be done via the Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench. Can you imagine, the MMF election put on hold while the validity of Mr. Charette's challenge was being debated. If he won the Chief Electoral Officer would have to reverse his earlier decision and initiate an investigation. Mr. Charette has agreed to e-mail us a copy of his response from CEO Alvin Zivot.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

May 21st is the challenge to list of electors.
Last Paragraph of the Notice of Election

3:53 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

http://www.yvondumontforpresident.com/
Yvon Dumont's web page.
Check it out.

7:48 PM  

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