VANCOUVER - B.C. New Democratic Party leadership hopeful Anjali Appadurai has urged the party executive not to use what she called an undemocratic "nuclear option" to disqualify her, a move that would make David Eby the sole contender to become the next premier.
I am blown away by the tremendous support I’ve received in response to the news that the @BCNDP will vote on my disqualification from the leadership race.
— Anjali Appadurai (@AnjaliApp) October 19, 2022
NDP members, join me to tell the party that ending the leadership race is a mistake. https://t.co/epRy9WoN5F #bcpoli 🧵/1
Party executives were expected to decide later Wednesday whether Appadurai can stay in the contest to replace Premier John Horgan.
A report from the NDP's chief electoral officer, Elizabeth Cull, obtained by The Canadian Press, recommends Appadurai be disqualified over alleged breaches of contest rules, such as an alliance with an environmental group and the wooing of former B.C. Green Party members.
Appadurai denies her campaign has done anything wrong. She says they used grassroots organizing to sign up thousands of new members to vote in the race — significantly more than Eby, the former attorney general and minister responsible for housing.
"And so the party had a choice. Let all the members of the party, new and old, choose the next leader and risk having a climate champion in the premier seat or take this undemocratic approach and disqualify the candidate," Appadurai said at a news conference in Vancouver on Wednesday.
"It's distressing that they have taken the nuclear option, that risks ripping the party apart, further alienating the grassroots, tainting the new administration, and damaging the NDP chances in the next election in 2024."
The party, which had approximately 11,000 members going into the race, has not confirmed how many new memberships have been sold since.
Appadurai told reporters a ruling against her campaign could be fought in an appeal process, but the campaign hasn't decided if it would do so.
"I'm really hoping to call on the provincial executive to act in the best interests of the party tonight," she said.
Cull's report found there was "improper co-ordination" between the Appadurai campaign and the environmental group Dogwood BC, which used mass emails, text messages, social media and phone banks as part of a drive to recruit NDP supporters.
"The improper coordination with third parties (primarily Dogwood) played such a significant role in the Appadurai Campaign that it is impossible to create a level playing field at this point, and thus impossible to restore the Leadership Election Campaign to a state of integrity in which I could have confidence," the report says.
In a statement, Dogwood denies it broke any rules.
"Dogwood’s sign-up drive followed multiple conversations with Elections BC compliance officers," the statement says.
"Third parties like unions, businesses, faith groups and NGOs are allowed to encourage supporters to join a political party. Social movements are core to grassroots democracy in B.C., and sign-up drives are part of every leadership race."
Cull also found Dogwood solicited "fraudulent memberships" by encouraging members of other political parties to join the B.C. NDP.
Appadurai said there's no evidence to support that claim.
"There is nothing wrong when someone joins our party from another party hoping that under new leadership, the party will embrace a more ambitious direction," she said.
"There's equally nothing wrong with that person cancelling their membership and joining another party if our party doesn't elect their preferred candidate."
According to Cull's report, an audit of five per cent of the B.C. NDP membership as it stood on July 1 found 98.5 per cent of the members contacted were deemed to have valid memberships.
A spot check of new membership applications had since found only 72 per cent of the individuals contacted were deemed to have valid memberships, she reported.
A political communications expert said he read the Cull report and agreed with the conclusion to disqualify Appadurai.
“The insurgent candidacy from Anjali Appadurai is on its face problematic,” said Prof. David Black, at the school of communications and culture at Royal Roads University in Victoria.
“They just crossed a number of lines here, so I think the NDP is on the right side of this issue,” he said.
But Black said the party now faces the issue of convincing supporters and B.C. voters that Eby is the right person to succeed Horgan if he takes the job without facing a membership vote.
“It’s going to take some fancy public relations footwork to ensure the public and the membership that the party has made a difficult but right decision to preserve the integrity of their own leadership electoral process,” he said.
Eby said he has been focused on touring the province.
"The party has their process around ensuring the fairness of the race. They're gonna focus on that process. I have confidence in them to be able to do that," he said at an event in Vancouver.
