Liberals trade accusations of 'undemocratic' tactics in early online nomination contests

The allegations are most pointed in the Scarborough Centre Liberal nomination, which is scheduled to take place in an online vote on Oct. 6. But members also share broader concerns about the integrity of the nomination process as a whole as the party ramps up its electoral readiness.

The allegations include suspicious email addresses attached to more than 1,000 members, the OLP centre giving one candidate the ability to edit a sensitive membership spreadsheet, and duelling accusations about campaigns obtaining PIN codes to vote on behalf of members.

QP Briefing spoke with 15 Liberal sources for this article, with many — some of whom are neutral on campaigns, and others who are not — describing themselves as loyal party members concerned about what they fear are "unfair" and "undemocratic" processes and tactics. Most spoke on background, saying they feared reprisals from the party.

The hotly contested campaign in Scarborough Centre, an Ontario bellwether that Liberals feel they can recapture in the next election, features Mazhar Shafiq, who represented the party in the 2018 election, and Tasnim Bala, a local small business owner. Brandon Campbell is the third candidate in the riding. A nomination contest in the riding with the most Liberal members in the province has raised significant questions at multiple stages of the process, one that, like the other nomination contests so far, is already exceptional due to its online-only nature brought on by the pandemic. It also comes at a time when the Liberals have about 100 open seats to fill for the next election and when insiders are concerned about funding and staffing levels to ensure a smooth operation of the contests.

In a statement, Ontario Liberal Party President Brian Johns referred to the unprecedented context. "The challenges posed by the ongoing global pandemic, along with the complexities that accompany recruiting the largest cohort of new candidates in OLP history, have made conducting nominations more complicated than in the past. These circumstances are unprecedented for any political party, and they require us to use any and all tools at our disposal to make the process as efficient and nimble as possible."

Suspicious email accounts created 

As campaigns signed up members for the Liberal nomination in Scarborough Centre, concerns started to mount in late August about an unusually high number of email addresses created on relatively obscure domain. From August 23-28, 1,195 Liberal members in Scarborough Centre had registrations that have email addresses with Yandex domains. The obscure service allows free email sign-ups and there are online how-tos on creating 1,000 free addresses.

It is unclear which campaign created the email accounts.

Supporters of the Bala campaign brought them to the attention of the Ontario Liberal Party, which threw out almost all of the members. Johns said when the party became aware of the "email irregularity" it "took immediate action to expunge all impacted membership entries."

While supporters of the Bala campaign speculated that it came from the Shafiq campaign, Shafiq campaign manager Tom Allison denied the allegation. "It was not us," he told QP Briefing, adding that he had never heard of the Yandex email domain before it was raised as a campaign issue. Instead, he accused the Bala campaign of mudslinging in a Trump-style effort to sow doubts about electoral integrity before the vote takes place. "They are running the dirtiest, ugliest campaign I have ever seen," the longtime Liberal operative added.

Multiple supporters of the Bala campaign said they first flagged the issue and remain concerned that a handful of members on the list of 1,195 Yandex emails remain registered, but now under new email addresses.

In order to verify the membership, QP Briefing sent emails to the thirteen people who had Yandex emails and then were added under the same name with a different email address and requested read receipts. Only one person opened the email. That person did not speak with QP Briefing, and requested that no more emails requesting media interviews be sent.

Spreadsheet access

All three campaigns in Scarborough Centre were given access to a membership spreadsheet that detailed who was registered in the riding and which of those members were verified. This spreadsheet, shared on Google Docs, was meant to be read-only for each of the campaigns, but Bala supporters raised allegations of impropriety when the document showed that the last person to edit it was Shafiq, one of the candidates.

Anyone with editing access to this document could effectively change the voting rolls for the nomination contest. Allison acknowledged that editing access had been granted and said that it occurred in error, adding the campaign had not made any changes to the document. "We were given higher-level access to the spreadsheet," he said. But he added that it was much ado about nothing. "We didn't ask for this [access], we didn't know we had it, we didn't use it."

A complaint was filed to Johns, who determined that it was a "human error."

When asked about the investigation into the incident, how it was determined to be human error, and what the edit history of the document revealed, the Ontario Liberal Party responded, "As soon as this was discovered immediate action was taken, and all campaigns were notified. OLP conducted a complete review of the membership registration records, and confirmed that this mistake did not impact the registration process."

Some local Liberal supporters who backed the Bala campaign, and others who are neutral in the contest, were skeptical at the party response. "If you have [edit] access you can manipulate the voter list," said one Bala supporter who lacked confidence in the process. "It's unfair."

The Google spreadsheet had been shared by Milton Chan, the returning officer for Scarborough Centre. Various Liberals questioned his neutrality in the contest, citing the fact that alongside Allison he worked on Shafiq's 2018 campaign for the Liberals. Chan, a senior legal counsel for the OLP who is in charge of overseeing the party's new equity policy, recently faced criticism from some Liberals in Toronto Centre due to allegations that as riding president he tried to discourage some would-be candidates from running in favour of David Morris. Those allegations were first reported by Queen's Park Today, and verified by QP Briefing. Emails sent to the riding executive decried "backroom politics" and expressed concerns about an undemocratic process.

Chan declined to speak with QP Briefing, saying that he would let the party response speak for him.

Similar concerns about favouritism have emerged in Scarborough Centre, where there is a feeling among some Liberals, including neutral party supporters, that the OLP has a preferred candidate for the riding, and that it is Shafiq.

Those echoed concerns in Mississauga Centre, where Shafqat Ali, who considered running for the party nomination before it was declared a women-only riding, shared concerns that the OLP has a preferred candidate for the riding.

The OLP did not respond to a question about whether they maintain preferred candidates for some ridings. The party also declined to respond to questions about the perception that Chan had a conflict of interest as returning officer in what is meant to be a neutral role.

Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca made candidate diversity a key part of his platform for leadership, although he did not spell out at the time how some of the initiatives would work. The Liberals have also declared a state of electoral urgency, first reported by QP Briefing, which gives the leader additional powers to appoint candidates across the province.

Harvesting PIN codes

The process to vote in an online nomination meeting requires multiple steps, including registering, providing identification, and a secret PIN code provided to eligible members to verify the process.

On the eve of the election, allegations that campaigns in Scarborough Centre have been trying to collect PIN codes from members have grown.

Collecting these PIN codes is not prohibited, and they can be shared as a form of proxy voting. But some Liberals are concerned that not all members will know that giving a PIN code means a campaign could use that member's vote.

Maaz Ahmed Morvaniya, an undecided voter in the riding, described two women who approached his home on Oct. 3 between 5:30 and 5:40 p.m., saying they were representing the Shafiq campaign. They asked him if he had received his PIN code, and when he told them he had, they asked him what it was.

He was insulted. "I found that this was not right," he told QP Briefing, explaining that it would enable the campaign to vote on his behalf. He expressed concerns that while he understood the implications, it is a confusing process and the riding has many immigrants who might not understand what it means to pass on their PIN code.

QP Briefing spoke with other local Liberals on background who described similar experiences. One said that he was called last Saturday by someone from the Shafiq campaign where an individual tried to persuade them to share their PIN code; the caller from the campaign said that it was fine to do so, and he had collected around 80 of them so far. Another caller pitched a different Liberal supporter that sharing the PIN code was a matter of convenience in case they are too busy to vote on Tuesday.

Allison characterized it as an action that the Bala campaign was engaged in, saying that he had affidavits to attest to that fact. He did not confirm or deny that the Shafiq campaign was engaged in the same practice. "I know for a fact that our opponent is doing this," he said, acknowledging that this nomination has been particularly fraught, and characterizing it as a battle leftover from the leadership contest. He also chided some Liberal supporters for sharing their concerns about the process with the media. "Whoever went to the media to complain about this should be dealt with by the Liberal Party."

Johns, the president of the OLP, expressed confidence in the PIN code process and put the responsibility for the codes on individual Liberal members. "As we have shifted to virtual nominations the Ontario Liberal Party is working with Intelivote, the same vendor which has previously been used by the Ontario PC Party, the Ontario NDP and over 100 municipalities across Ontario. Voter PIN codes used in nominations are the responsibility of the individual member."

There have also been PIN code issues in other ridings, according to multiple sources. One source, who was independent of any campaign, said there were allegations that campaign representatives would collect names, take photos of identification, and create email addresses in order to get all the material for a member on the voter list, and then collect the PIN code. "It was just wrong," he said.

When told about the allegations, another loyal Liberal insider who has not been part of any of the campaigns was unimpressed. "We need to ensure integrity as a party," he said of the nominating process, adding that considering pausing the race — slated for today — should be on the table. He added some context, saying that the party needs to be better than what its history has been. "Open nominations is not in the DNA of our party. It's a little of a to-the-victor-go-the-spoils system."

Readers can contact this reporter with tips at dhains [at] qpbriefing.com, or at 416-880-4321