AG dismisses claims upcoming referendum will favour BC NDP, Greens
Posted December 3, 2017 12:03 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VICTORIA (NEWS 1130) – BC’s Attorney General is defending how the NDP government is mapping out electoral reform heading into next year’s referendum.
David Eby has come under fire for relying too much on advice from experts clearly in favour of proportional representation, however, he’s dismissing suggestions the deck has been stacked.
As for the safety of having voters mail-in their ballots, Eby says it has been done before without any fear of tampering.
“Elections BC will be overseeing the process. The voting process will be such that it’s a two-envelope type system where people’s anonymity in voting is preserved, but we can ensure that the people who vote don’t vote more than once and that there isn’t fraud in the voting process. They will have physical locations where people can vote if they don’t have a home address where they receive mail or for some reason, they don’t receive their ballot.”
Eby’s also dismissing opposition calls for independent scrutiny insisting the process is transparent. “We will be providing them with neutral information about the different voting systems. There are all kinds of benefits of first past the post. There are all kinds of benefits of proportional systems.”
Legislation was passed back in October that the referendum would be conducted by a mail-in ballot and the proposal would need the support of 50 per cent, plus one, of those who vote.
Eby had previously stated the referendum wouldn’t be held any later than Nov. 30, 2018 and if a new system is approved, the government will introduce legislation to implement it in time for the next provincial election scheduled for 2021.
