Saturday, April 20, 2013

Parties that could lose their registration if they do not nominate two candidates

To remain a registered political party in BC you must run at least two candidates in an election

The specific passage from the Election Act:

Automatic deregistration of political party for failure to run candidates
168  (1) The chief electoral officer must deregister a political party following a general election if, for that general election and the immediately preceding general election, it was not represented by at least 2 candidates in one of the general elections.
(2) As an exception to subsection (1), a political party that would otherwise be deregistered under that subsection is entitled to remain registered if a candidate representing it in the current general election is elected.
(3) If, at the end of the nomination period for a general election, a political party may be subject to deregistration under this section following the election, the chief electoral officer must notify the political party of this.
(4) Deregistration under this section is effective on the date of the return of the last of the writs for the general election.
So which parties could this apply to?    Any party that was first formally registered before the 2009 provincial election and did not run at least two candidates in 2009.   As of today there are seven political parties that have not formally nominated any candidates for the 2013 election that will be de-registered if they do not field at least two candidates:

  • Advocational Democratic Party  - it first registered in 2006 but did not run candidates in 2009.   They are linked to the Patriot Party and seem to be mainly about some sort of financial transactions.
  • BC Party - The party was created by former Social Credit types in the late 1990s.  Christian Heritage of BC party leader Wilf Hanni was a one time leader of the BC Party.   I assume if this party is de-registered, someone else will register if very quickly as a possible "free-enterprise" party name to replace the BC Liberals after they lose the election
  • Marijuana Party - Jodie Emery, wife of party leader Marc Emery and the contact for the party on the elections BC website, is  running for the BC Greens in this election in Vancouver West End.
  • Patriot Party - this is the other half of the two parties that seem to be using the benefits of being a political party for other purposes.  
  • Progressive Nationalist Party - A party of left of centre separatists that have  Grand Forks mayor Brian Taylor listed as leader 
  • Social Credit Party - they ran 2 candidates in 2005 and none in 2009.   From 1952 to 1991 this was the dominant party in BC and only 22 years later it faces formal extinction. (edit, Social Credit has formally nominated one candidate for the 2013 election as of yesterday)
  • Western Canada Concept - ran only 1 candidate in 2009.  Leader Douglas Christie recently died.
Of these parties I only expect the Advocational Democractic Party and the BC Patriot Party to field the required two candidates because if they were to deregister all their assets would be forfeit to the government.



2 comments:

Brian Train said...

I really wonder what you could do about these shenanigans - it sure looks bogus. Someone's found a loophole for sure, and has enough money (over $500 K) to exploit it fully.

David J. A. Foster said...

Just think, if the Advocational party spent all that money in one riding they might get someone elected!