Manitoba Tories say NDP getting political at polling station

The Tories say NDP candidate Bernadette Smith has taken photographs with voters in front of the polling station.

Manitoba's Progressive Conservatives are accusing the Opposition New Democrats of breaking election rules that ban political activities at polling stations.

The Tories have filed a complaint with the returning office in Point Douglas – a Winnipeg seat where advance polls are underway for a byelection next Tuesday.

The Tories said NDP candidate Bernadette Smith has taken photographs of herself with voters in front of the polling station.

The PC’s also alleged NDP legislature members have been spending a lot of time around one polling station and on a balcony that overlooks it.

Matt Austman, spokesperson for the NDP, said that the PC’s have no proof that any illegal wrongdoing occurred.

“Bernadette [Smith] was not in the photo, and she did not take the picture,” Austman said. “We removed the photo from Twitter because we know that it could be misunderstood.”

Elections Manitoba confirms they have received the complaint and have passed it on to the commissioner of elections.

The NDP said in a release that the allegations made by the Tories is an attempt to distract Manitobans from other issues.

The statement sent by the NDP to CTV News:

"This is a desperate attempt by the PC Party to distract from the real issue at hand: Pallister's cuts to the frontline services like Rent Assist and the North Point Douglas Women's Centre that Point Douglas families count on.
The PC complaint is full of baseless allegations that are intended to smear. If the PCs actually were interested in following the law, they would realize that their own campaign office is across the street from a polling station, and would find that its location is conspicuously close to the advance polling location at Neechi Commons."

The province's Elections Act forbids anyone from trying to influence voters or post campaign material within 50 metres of a polling station.

With files from The Canadian Press.

PC's letter to Elections Manitoba by CTVWinnipeg on Scribd