DID THE UCP KILL KAMIKAZE INVESTIGATION BY REFUSING EXTENSION?

EDMONTON - The UCP Government needs to come clean to Albertans if they interfered politically with the Chief Electoral Officer investigation into the UCP Kamikaze scandal, following revelations that an extension to continue an investigation of Elections Alberta was denied.

At the Standing Committee on Legislative Offices, the Chief Electoral Officer revealed that a request to extend an investigation was denied. The Chief Electoral Officer stated “I did request an additional 120-day extension to the legislation and this request was denied.” 

Following an inquiry by MLA Heather Sweet into the impacts of this denied extension, Chief Electoral Officer Glen Resler stated that this extension would have provided additional time to conduct the investigation, and an Elections Alberta investigator stated that the denied extension plus additional factors meant that investigation had “bumped up against the timeline specified in the investigation” referring to section of the Election Finance and Contributions Disclosure Act that puts a three year limit to such investigations.

“This is very serious and requires immediate action,” said Heather Sweet, NDP Democracy and Ethics Critic. “First, the UCP fired the Election Commissioner in the middle of his investigation into the Kamikaze scandal, and now it appears that they might have interfered further into investigations currently being conducted by the Chief Electoral Officer, by denying them an extension to continue investigating. Is this investigation still going on? Albertans deserve answers. And it appears this UCP Government is desperate to keep them from getting these answers. ”

The Kamikaze scandal is the investigation into the UCP leadership race, where it has been alleged that UCP Leadership candidate Jeff Callaway ran a phony campaign financed by a secret corporate donation to benefit Jason Kenney’s campaign by attacking fellow candidate Brian Jean. Since the investigation into this scandal began, over a hundred thousand dollars in fines were levied by the Election Commissioner related to this scandal.