This article was last updated on April 16, 2022
Canada: 
Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…
USA: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…
Giving his remarks about the government’s highly debatable election reform bill on Tuesday, former chief electoral officer Jean-Pierre Kingsley gave a mixed review. In addition to highlighting several positive changes, Kingsley also warned that it will exclude some voters in violation of their constitutional rights.
Top elections watchdog from 1990 to 2007, Kingsley, previously had positive views about the Fair Elections Act as he graded it A-, but later on Tuesday he recommended a committee studying the bill to rescind some of its measures. In his testimony to the House of Commons procedure and house affairs committee, Kingsley alleged that it is not necessary to scrap provisions that allow one voter to “vouch” for the identity of another. Mr. Kingsley told the committee that “this will directly affect the constitutional right to vote for a significant number of Canadians without justification.”
In addition to that, Mr. Kingsley alleged that “I have no problem whatever with vouching the way it is structured under the Canada Elections Act at this present time.” Kingsley requested MPs on the committee not to remove it, as he urged them “please, don’t get rid of it.” Kingsley alleged that he accepted an estimate of 120,000 people who vote using vouching, but added that he thinks the number potentially disenfranchised by the new act might be somewhat lower as some of those would find another way to vote.
Be the first to comment