The Ontario Liberals have rejected an appeal by MP Nate Erskine-Smith of a nomination contest loss earlier this month that’s put his bid for leadership of the provincial party into question.
Erskine-Smith was vying to represent the provincial Liberals in the upcoming Scarborough Southwest byelection but did not win the party’s nomination, with members instead selecting Ahsanul Hafiz.
Erskine-Smith appealed to the party’s arbitration panel, alleging irregularities that included 34 more ballots counted than the number of recorded voters, as well as people who couldn’t state their address or claimed to have “just lost” their driver’s licence.
The arbitration’s panel’s decision, released late Sunday, found that Hafiz is the “true winner” of the nomination vote.
“We have carefully considered all of the evidence,” the panel wrote.
“It does not substantiate Mr. Erskine-Smith’s allegations. He has not established that any individual who was not entitled to vote voted at the nomination meeting. Nor does the evidence call into question the integrity of the nomination process.”
Erskine-Smith had said he wanted to run in Scarborough Southwest ahead of an intended bid for the party’s leadership, but now says that is “much less likely” after he failed to secure the nomination.
He currently represents the neighbouring riding of Beaches-East York federally — though he plans to soon resign his seat — and some of his fellow nomination candidates bristled at what they saw as a candidate trying to use their community as a springboard for the leadership.
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After Erskine-Smith’s nomination loss, in addition to alleging voting irregularities he suggested the party’s “establishment” worked to prevent him from winning.
The party’s arbitration panel found no evidence to support his allegation of bias, and noted that as with many of his allegations of irregularities, Erskine-Smith and his team did not raise concerns until after the results of the vote were announced.
“We conclude that Mr. Erskine-Smith’s scrutineers did not take issue with the comings and goings of the nomination meeting while it was underway, and did not decide to complain about it until after the meeting had ended and the outcome was known,” the panel wrote.
The discrepancy of 34 ballots that Erskine-Smith raised was not evidence of voting irregularities, but was instead an error in record keeping, due to failures to cross voters’ names off the list, the panel concluded.
Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser said the party was committed to an open and transparent process.
“Now that the arbitration committee dismissed this appeal, our focus is the voters of Scarborough Southwest,” he wrote in a statement.
“They have an important decision ahead, and we will work hard to earn their trust.”
That byelection, which has to be called by the summer, is to replace Doly Begum, who resigned earlier this year as the NDP member of provincial parliament for Scarborough Southwest in order to successfully run to represent the Liberals federally in that riding.
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