The Nova Scotia Liberal Party has released its rules for the contest to succeed Stephen McNeil as leader of the party and become the 29th premier of the province.
“Liberals are not only selecting their next leader, they are selecting the next premier of Nova Scotia,” said Joseph Khoury, president of the Nova Scotia Liberal Party, in a press release announcing the rules on Monday.
“This is an important responsibility.”
Candidates must register by Oct. 9, and each campaign will have a spending limit of $350,000.
As previously announced, candidates will need to put forward a $60,000 registration fee, $10,000 of which is conditionally refundable.
The party has opened up voting to each party member. Previously, delegates were elected by members of the local Liberal association to attend the convention and select the new leader on their behalf.
Now, anyone can become a delegate and cast a vote for the next Liberal Leader as long as they register before the cut-off of Jan. 7.
The party stresses to prospective members that there is a $20 tax-deductible fee — meaning a member can get $15 back as a tax credit. So it only costs $5 after the tax credit.
If an individual is registered as a delegate by Jan. 12, 2021, they will be eligible to vote by a preferential ballot.
The weighted system will allocate 100 points to each of the province’s 55 electoral districts.
The candidate who receives a majority of the vote will be declared the winner.
If there is no immediate winner in the first count, then it will progress to the second ballot where the candidate or candidates with less than 5 per of the total points will be removed and the points redistributed to the remaining candidates.
That process will continue until one candidate receives a majority of the vote.
Party members will cast their votes by phone or electronically between Feb. 1 and Feb. 6.
The selection of the next leader will then be announced to delegates and the public at the Nova Scotia Liberal Party convention on Feb. 26, 2021.
No one has officially announced a bid for the leadership.