WINNIPEG – The top administrator of the Manitoba Liberal Party has been charged with eight offences under the province’s Elections Act.
Dennis Trochim faces five counts of knowingly providing false or misleading information and three counts of making a false or misleading statement to the elections commissioner.
Trochim was not available for comment Thursday. The party’s acting president said the charges stem from clerical errors Trochim made as a volunteer during the 2011 election campaign.
“The charges … have to do with candidate pre-registration,” Mehra said.
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“Dennis has 100 per cent owned up to the situation and taken full responsibility and complied with Elections Manitoba to the fullest extent possible.”
As a volunteer, Trochim acted as an agent for many of the party’s candidates. With just one legislature seat, little money and very few full-time staff, the party had to juggle many tasks to recruit and field candidates in all 57 constituencies.
The board of directors stands behind Trochim, Mehra said.
Trochim is due back in court March 14. The maximum penalty for the charges is a $10,000 fine and one year in jail.
Trochim is not the first person to run afoul of the law in relations to the 2011 campaign.
NDP Health Minister Theresa Oswald was found guilty by Elections Manitoba of violating a ban on government advertising in the 90-day period before election day. She took part in a media tour of a new birthing centre in south Winnipeg shortly before the campaign began.
Elections Commissioner Bill Bowles said the violation was inadvertent and the minister suffered no consequences.
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