A Nova Scotia political party’s official party status is set to be suspended by the province’s electoral body.
The Atlantica Party announced in a blog post on Tuesday that it has been notified by Elections Nova Scotia that its official status will be suspended starting Wednesday.
That means it’ll no longer be able to collect financial donations or issue tax receipts for donations.
“The main issue involves a loan between the Party and its former leader,” the blog post said, referring to Jonathan Dean, who resigned in January.
“To date, an agreement to satisfy this loan has been unable to be reached due to the Party’s limited resources.”
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Elections Nova Scotia says that the decision was made after the party failed to comply with the province’s Elections Act.
Andy LeBlanc, a spokesperson for Elections Nova Scotia, says that the Atlantica Party has failed to file satisfactory financial disclosure forms and that there are also issues surrounding a loan that was made to the party.
LeBlanc would not comment on the nature of the loan or who made it.
He says the suspension for the party will last up to 30 days and can be resolved if the Atlantica Party gets its house in order and complies with the Elections Act.
If it doesn’t, the party could be de-registered.
The Atlantica Party was first registered as a political party in 2016 and is one of the five registered parties in Nova Scotia.
It ran 15 candidates in the 2017 provincial election and received 1,632 votes or 0.4 per cent of votes cast.
The Atlantica Party says it believes it has the ability to contest the suspension.