The Conservative Party of Canada said Thursday it has begun counting the more than 400,000 votes that have been cast in the party’s leadership race, a record number in the contest to choose a new permanent leader.
But now, the party has a new question to face: whether to go ahead with the leadership convention planned for this Saturday in the wake of Queen Elizabeth’s death.
Of the 678,702 members who were eligible to vote, the party received 437,854 ballots before Tuesday’s deadline, a turnout of about 65 percent. This is the same turnout that was recorded in the 2020 leadership election.
“Canada’s Conservatives continue to set records in 2022,” said Rob Batherson, party president.
“This is the largest number of Canadians to vote in a leadership election, of any political party, in our country’s history. Canadians are clearly turning to the Conservatives to bring change to Canada.”
The party said 417,987 ballots will actually be counted after about 20,000 ballots were found to be incomplete.
To vote, the party requires members to submit a copy of their photo ID. Not all ballots were returned with a photocopy of a card or other eligible document showing a member’s name, photo and address. The party said the rejection rate is “slightly lower than previous leadership races”.
To avoid a repeat of the last leadership race when technical problems delayed the final result until the early hours of the morning, the party has already started feeding the ballot boxes through its machines.
Final tabulation will take place on Saturday with the result expected after 6pm ET. In each round of tabulation, the party will announce the number of points received by each candidate.
But in the wake of Queen Elizabeth’s death, there is now some uncertainty over whether planned election events will go ahead as planned. The party has organized a convention for paying delegates at the Shaw Center in Ottawa.
Ian Brodie, chairman of the leadership election organizing committee (LEOC), said in a statement on Thursday that discussions are underway on how the election results will be announced as the country enters a 10-day mourning period after the death of the monarch.
“The sad news of the death of Her Majesty The Queen obviously means that the Conservative Party of Canada Leadership Election Organizing Committee is considering an appropriate and respectful way to announce the results of the 2022 leadership election,” he said. said Brodie.
“We will adhere to all protocols regarding the death of the sovereign established by the Government of Canada and will provide an update early Friday.”
1:53:00 FULL EPISODE: Who Should Lead the Conservative Party of Canada?
The Conservative Party of Canada will decide its next leader in a matter of days. The decision will affect the fortunes of this party in the next election, but also potentially the politics of this country as a whole for years to come.
Under party leadership rules, the election is made using a points system that gives all constituencies equal weight. Points are allocated proportionally based on each constituency’s vote, and each constituency can issue 100 points (as long as there are at least 100 accepted votes cast from that constituency).
To win, a candidate must score at least a few points in each region of the country, a system designed to ensure representation from areas such as Atlantic Canada and Quebec, where there are comparatively fewer Conservative members.
Members use a preference ballot where they rank their order of preference. There are five options to choose from in this election: Conservative MPs Scott Aitchison, Pierre Poilievre and Leslyn Lewis, former Quebec premier Jean Charest and former Ontario MP Roman Baber.
Brampton, Ontario Mayor Patrick Brown, who was disqualified from the race this summer, will also appear on the ballot.
Three other would-be candidates, including two anti-abortion candidates, were disqualified by the party’s LEOC before the race began. This led some social conservative members to claim that “corruption” was to blame.