A recent update has confirmed that even less than half of the people who signed up to participate in the federal Liberal leadership race, i.e. almost 300,000, have actually registered their vote, even though they were allowed an unnecessary extra week extension to do so. As of late Thursday, i.e. a little before the midnight deadline, an estimate of 43% of supporters and members, i.e. some 126,000, have registered so far.
The party had formerly announced a deadline of Mar. 14, however, in compliance with a request of front-runner Justin Trudeau’s camp the registration period was extended by one week, which was a controversial move receiving objections of several rival camps. The Trudeau team reasoned that the extra time was required because the party was facing problem while sending the registration packages to more than 100,000 people, majority of which supported Trudeau, who had signed up without providing email addresses. However, the extension only generated a small number of 21,000 registered voters.
Even with the small turn out, it is anticipated that several hundred of these registered voters will be disqualified. The initial list of registered voters will only be finalized and authenticated by the party organization by midnight Sunday, after which all the leadership camps will be allowed until midnight Tuesday to raise challenges against those they believe may be invalid. Various camps have alleged that there will be frequent suspected registrants, especially those instances where dozens of people have provided the same email address or home address.
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