WATCH: Elections Nova Scotia is now investigating both the provincial NDP and Liberals for breaching the elections act. As Global’s Marieke Walsh reports the parties say they didn’t know the rules.
HALIFAX – Elections Nova Scotia is investigating the provincial NDP for flyers sent out to a riding with an upcoming byelection.
The investigation into the NDP was launched while Elections Nova Scotia was investigating the Liberal party for flyers sent to three ridings with upcoming byelections.
“We received information that an NDP advertising piece may have been distributed in an electoral district in which a byelection will be held to fill a vacancy,” said Elections Nova Scotia spokesperson Dana Doiron in an email.
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The NDP said it’s cooperating with the investigation and will pay back any money if Elections Nova Scotia tells them to. “We are working with (Elections Nova Scotia) as of now, if a rule was broken inadvertently, we will take their advice on how to correct the matter,” said Spokesperson Mark Laventure.
The elections act stipulates that parties can’t send out taxpayer-funded advertising once a riding is declared vacant, even if no byelection has been called. The rule is different from a general election, where the same rule only applies once the election campaign starts. The NDP and Liberals both said they weren’t aware of the difference in rules for byelections. But, Elections Nova Scotia said the rule has been in place since at least 1990. Since then 12 byelections have been held.
“The New Democratic Party also sent a mailout around the byelections, I think everyone was under the impression that what happens at a general election applied to a byelection,” said Premier Stephen McNeil.
Flyers and other advertising paid for by taxpayers has to meet certain standards for content and non-partisan material in order to be paid for from the public purse. Party caucuses often ask the Speaker’s Office to verify whether content they plan on sending out meets the test of non-partisan material, said Chief Clerk Neil Ferguson. However, the Speaker’s Office is not involved in determining whether parties are following the elections act.
The NDP said the flyers were approved by the Speaker’s Office for content before Liberal MLA Allan Rowe passed away and the party didn’t realise they were breaking the rules when they were mailed out in mid-April.
Dartmouth South was declared vacant after Rowe died on March 16.
The Liberals are being investigated for flyers sent to three ridings, all of them with vacancies. McNeil said the party will pay $7,000 for its mailings.
Elections Nova Scotia said it will release the results of both investigations on Friday.
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