A losing B.C. Conservative candidate who filed a petition in B.C. Supreme Court claiming alleged election "irregularities" in the October provincial election has filed an amendment to that petition that contains what he describes as significant new evidence.
Singh and his lawyer, Sunny Uppal, held a press conference Tuesday (June 17) outside of Vancouver's Robson Square courthouse.
"The amended petition seeks a declaration that the election of Garry Begg is invalid and that the office should be declared vacant, along with other relief as deemed appropriate by the Court," stated Sunny Uppal, Randhawa's lawyer, in a press release Tuesday (June 17).
"The amended petition alleges substantial irregularities and violations of the Election Act, including voter intimidation, undue influence, and unauthorized use of mail-in ballots at a Surrey care facility, Argyll Lodge, affecting vulnerable residents," Uppal said. The amended petition also "flushed out the legal basis" to the facts Randhawa had stated in the original petition.
Honveer Singh Randhawa, who lost Surrey-Guildford by 22 votes to New Democrat Garry Begg following a judicial recount, filed a petition at the New Westminster Supreme Court on Jan. 13 asking the Supreme Court of British Columbia to declare Begg's election invalid under Section 150 of the Election Act.
The petition details Randhawa's efforts to obtain information from Elections BC about who voted in Surrey-Guildford and the delays he encountered.
It also lays out details about 18 alleged non-resident voters and two cases where it's alleged that an individual voted twice under slightly different names, as well as going into detail about Randhawa's previous allegations that voting at Argyll Lodge, a mental health facility in Surrey, may have been carried out improperly.
The petition is between Honveer Singh Randhawa and respondents Anton Boegman, the chief electoral officer; Rana Malhi, the district electoral officer; Surrey-Guildford MLA Garry Begg; and candidates Kabir Qurban and Manjeet Singh Sahota. Begg, Qurban and Sahota, along with Randhawa, ran in the October 2024 provincial election in the Surrey-Guildford riding.
Randhawa said in a June 17 news release that, 鈥淰oters in Surrey-Guildford deserve transparency and accountability. This isn鈥檛 about politics鈥攊t鈥檚 about upholding the democratic rights of every voter and ensuring elections are conducted lawfully and transparently.鈥�
'Inflammatory' material had impact on Randhawa: petition
The amended petition, dated June 16, outlines the new evidence and Randhawa's response to MLA Garry Begg's Feb. 25 affidavit material in which Begg and the BC NDP accused the BC Conservatives of using innocent people as collateral after presenting evidence that the party says contradicts central claims of the Conservatives' case.
The Feb. 25 court documents show how the son of a resident with mental illness invalidated the declaration of his father. According to the document, an individual said to be a Conservative organizer took the man from the lodge without his permission, separating him from his medication. Police later found the man at Randhawa's law office in a state of psychosis and took him to the hospital, according to the documents. According to the documents, the individual said to be a Conservative organizer made him sign the now-recanted declaration.
Randhawa's amended petition stated, "The filing of this inflammatory material, which relied entirely on inadmissible and speculative evidence, has had a significant reputational and personal impact on Randhawa."
Between the date of Begg's filing (Feb. 25) and June 12, Randhawa "repeatedly demanded that Election BC file their response to the Petition."
Elections BC stated it would not file until a sealing order application was heard, which was initially scheduled for March 14 but was delayed several times due to Elections BC missing the service deadline. On April 4, Begg filed a sealing order application with the court requesting a publication ban on the names of individual voters, the names of their family members, and the home addresses of both family members and voters. The court approved the application.
"Meanwhile, the public remained of the impression, due to Begg, that Randhawa had, through volunteers, 'groomed and exploited' mentally ill individuals," reads the amended petition.
Randhawa continued to investigate the non-resident voters who allegedly voted in the riding during the provincial election.
Conservative petition alleges mistakes made by Elections BC
He claims that: "At all material times, Elections BC knew that it had made a mistake during the election and that these mistakes would give Randhawa a factual basis to invalidate the Surrey-Guildford riding, but Elections BC concealed this information from Randhawa and the public, instead accusing Randhawa of having spread misinformation."
The petition says that during the judicial recount, Elections BC did not bring to Randhawa's or the courts' attention that one person had ordered mail-in ballots for the lodge on behalf of residents of the lodge, which Uppal said was a breach of the Elections Act. They were also not informed that one person had helped the lodge residents fill out the mail-in ballots and that one individual had mailed them in without stating on the certification envelope that they had helped the voters fill out the mail-in ballots.
"We don't know for sure what happened at the lodge, but the understanding is that this one individual either helped them or assisted people fill out these ballots, or something happened there. I don't want to speculate, but in any event, that would have also been a breach of the Election Act, because you can't assist more than one person bill and fill in a mail in ballot, unless there's an election official present," Uppal said.
The person at the lodge then mailed in all the ballots without indicating that someone had assisted voters at the lodge in casting their votes.
"So when the mail-in ballots were sent to Elections BC, Elections BC wouldn't have known necessarily (or) when anybody reviewing them wouldn't have necessarily known that someone had assisted someone to fill out the mail-in ballot," Uppal said.
This is a "very serious" situation, Uppal said. "So by BC Elections mailing in these mail in ballots to this one individual, without ensuring that there were proper checks and balances in place, they could have potentially created a situation where these now residents could be subject to election fraud or exploited, right, right? And so there's that, it's a serious irregularity."
Uppal is alleging that the integrity of the ballots from the lodge is "compromised" because of those reasons.
Mail-in voting packages at heart of Surrey-Guildford dispute
In Begg's Feb. 25 response to the petition, it outlined a different version of what happened leading up to and on election day at the lodge. It alleges that the one individual, called "the activity worker," had helped residents who wanted to vote request a mail-in voting package.
Randhawa's amended petition noted that the same email and phone number associated with the lodge were used for all mail-in package requests.
The petitions stated, "At that time, section 109.01 of the Election Act provided that an individual was not to assist more than one voter order a mail-in ballot package unless that person was an election official appointed under the Election Act. There was no one appointed at the Lodge, which is a mental health facility, as an election official. Notwithstanding, ElectionsBC filled the Lodge's request for a mail-in ballot package, thereby exposing vulnerable individuals to potential exploitation."
Begg's Feb. 25 response noted that on election day, the residents who had requested and received mail-in ballots sat at their assigned seats. From across the room, a worker told them to mark the ballot next to the party or candidate they wanted to vote for. The worker then instructed the residents how to seal the envelope and brought them up to her to confirm the voters had signed the envelope.
Elections BC did mention Randhawa's petition in its .
"At the time of writing of this report, the Court has yet to hear the application. On hearing the application, the Court may declare that the election in SRG (Surrey-Guildford) is confirmed as valid, or that the election was invalid and that the seat is vacant," reads the report.
Randhawa is also claiming that Elections BC and Begg are abusing legislation "to benefit from its unconstitutional conduct."
"Elections BC, the Officer of the Legislature, actively concealed and/or obstructed a candidate鈥檚 ability to investigate potential wrongdoings, notwithstanding the fact that at all times, Elections BC stood in a special relationship vis-a-vis Randhawa."
"Election BC鈥檚 obstruction and concealment prejudiced the voters and Randhawa鈥檚 respective constitutional right under section 3 to a fair election, undermined electoral integrity, compromised public confidence in our democracy, and is against public policy."
He goes on to say that Begg's conduct "cannot be downplayed as a mere irregularity, and Begg and Elections BC must be stopped from relying on the 30-day limitation period to benefit from their own wrongdoing."
"This was a situation where the legislature, through its Officer, sent mail-in ballots to a mental health care lodge responsible for taking care of vulnerable people without ensuring there were proper checks and balances in place to ensure those vulnerable individuals were not exploited and utilized as an instrument for election fraud, thereby infringing on Randhawa's and the public鈥檚 right to a fair electoral process under section 3 of the Charter.
"The Crown can never be permitted to say 'yes, we made a mistake, but too bad too sad you are now out of time' even though it was the Crown itself that obstructed Randhawa鈥檚 ability to discover the Crown鈥檚 wrongdoing. To allow Begg and Elections BC to rely on the 30-day limitation period would be against public policy.鈥�
"This is a situation where the Crown, the legislature and its officer, the BC Elections, is trying to take advantage of a limitation period to shield its own conduct when it was the reason that the Mr. Randhawa couldn't find that information, and to do that against public policy. And so it's unconscionable for BC Elections or Mr. Begg to rely on that 30-day limitation," Uppal said.
The next scheduled court appearance is June 25 for a case management conference. The trial is scheduled to take place in late summer or early fall and is expected to last two to three weeks, Uppal said.
The claims in the petition have not been tested or proven in court.
Elections BC 'neutral' in dispute, expects to file petition response this week
The Surrey Now-Leader reached out to Elections BC for comment.
"We are unable to comment on specific allegations while this matter is before the Court. Once the hearing is complete, the Court may determine that the election in Surrey-Guildford was valid or invalid. If the election is declared invalid, a by-election will be held," a statement said.
The statement said Elections BC is a "neutral party" in the matter.
"Our role is to provide factual information to the Court about how the 2024 election in Surrey-Guildford was administered. We have prepared response materials and provided copies to the parties to the petition," it said.
Elections BC has not yet filed that materials as it was "awaiting reasons on our application for a sealing order and publication ban," it said.
"We made this application to protect the personal information of the voters involved in this matter. We anticipate filing our petition response materials this week, and redacted versions will be available to the public. However, as Mr. Randhawa has now filed an amended petition, Elections BC may file further responsive materials in the future."
Tania Jarzebiak, provincial director of the BC NDP, provided a statement to Surrey Now-Leader.
"Mr. Randhawa has weakened his position with this amended petition, abandoning several claims that he had previously made," the statement said. "This follows the earlier revelation that a family member of one of the lodge residents says that a BC Conservative operative took advantage of his father, including removing him from the lodge against the family鈥檚 wishes and forcing him to sign a statement that he did not understand."
"鈥淎s we have said before, the BC NDP is confident that our province鈥檚 elections are free, fair and democratic 鈥� and always have been. Honveer Randhawa and John Rustad owe these families an apology for the harm they've caused."
-With files from Black Press Media staff
