Lorne Gunter: Recall petitions in Alberta will force politicians to explain themselves |
Being made the subject of a recall campaign might be worrisome to a politician, even if they never expect to be unseated.
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Of the 26 Alberta MLAs (24 UCP and two NDP) who are currently the subjects of recall petitions, Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides was the first to have a campaign started against him.
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The organizers of the anti-Nicolaides campaign were allowed to begin collecting signatures in his constituency on Oct. 24.
The recall law requires the collection of a number of valid signatures equal to 60 per cent of the votes cast in that constituency in the last provincial general election. That means the dump Nicolaides activists must collect 16,006 signatures exclusively from constituency residents just to force a simple majority vote over whether Nicolaides’ Calgary-Bow constituency should hold a full-fledged byelection.
The petitioners’ 90-day collection time limit runs out on Jan. 21. So far, only 6,000........