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Byelection to choose eighth member of Thompson city council will be held March 11

A byelection to fill the vacant seat on Thompson’s city council has been scheduled for March 11 and candidates have until Feb. 3 at 4 p.m. to register. Candidate registration will begin Jan. 18 at City Hall during regular hours of business.
A byelection to fill the vacant eighth spot on city council is scheduled for March 11 but it will be
A byelection to fill the vacant eighth spot on city council is scheduled for March 11 but it will be overseen by a different senior election official than the Oct. 24 general election because Dave Turpie is retiring from the position.

A byelection to fill the vacant seat on Thompson’s city council has been scheduled for March 11 and candidates have until Feb. 3 at 4 p.m. to register.

Candidate registration will begin Jan. 18 at City Hall during regular hours of business. The deadline to withdraw a nomination will be Feb. 4 at 4 p.m.

City communications officer Kacper Antoszewski says the official results and statement of the vote for each ballot box were received from Justice Herbert Rempel, who conducted a judicial recount of the Oct. 24 election results, on Jan. 8, at which point the city began the process of serving the official statement of the vote and results to all 20 council candidates who registered for the 2018 general election.

Senior election official Dave Turpie applied for a judicial recount after the October election because two candidates – Chiew Chong and Andre Proulx – tied for the eighth and final spot on council with 1,008 votes on election night. Prior to the recount, an election day decision to reject one ballot was overturned but another ballot that had been originally counted was rejected. When the votes were recounted, there was still a tie. Under Manitoba’s Municipal Council and School Board Elections Act, that meant the seat had to be declared vacant and a byelection held to choose the final councillor.

Chong filed an application in court contesting the recount and Turpie agreed to postpone the election until after a Feb. 11 hearing when the merits of the application may be ruled upon. As of a Jan. 14 hearing, Chong had not yet filed documents required for the application to proceed.

The city is also seeking a new senior election officialto oversee the upcoming byelection because Turpie is retiring.

“He informed us of his intent prior to the October election, but he extended his original retirement date to help us with the tie vote,” said Antoszewski.

To run for councillor, candidates must be Canadian citizens, 18 years or older as of election day and voters in the municipality in which they are running. Municipal employees may run for office if they take a leave of absence from their jobs. Members of the Manitoba legislature, the House of Commons or the Senate are not eligible to run, nor are judges or justices of the peace. Those previously convicted of an election offence or who failed to pay a fine after being convicted of other Municipal Act offences are also not eligible as candidates.

Prospective candidates must register with the senior election official before accepting any contributions towards or spending money on their campaigns. They will be provided with copies of the voters list, which is based on the list from the 2016 provincial election, and nominations must be include the signatures of 25 people on that list.

Council candidates can spend a maximum of $5,000 on their campaigns, but must keep records of all contributions received – whether cash or in-kind – and submit a financial statement following the election. They must have a separate campaign account before they can begin accepting donations, and can only take a maximum of $1,500 from any one individual. Donors must be Manitoba residents and union, corporate or anonymous donations are prohibited.

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