Spirit Alliance, which ran candidates in the last Kelowna municipal election, is one of several civic political parties under investigation by Elections BC.
An Elections BC media release states that 12 parties are being investigated for potential contraventions of the Local Elections Campaign Financing Act (LECFA) during the 2022 general local elections.
The investigations are related to one or more of the following:
- accepting prohibited contributions;
- failing to deal with prohibited contributions in accordance with LECFA, or;
- sponsoring election advertising without an authorization statement.
“The investigations will determine whether contraventions have occurred or not and Elections BC will share the results of these investigations once they conclude,” the release states.
At this point, no contraventions have been confirmed.
Campaign financing disclosure reports for the 2022 general local elections were due on January 13, 2023, and then reviewed and audited by Elections BC.
The process was completed in September 2023 and some filers were required to submit additional information.
The investigations were initiated based on the review and audit findings, and supplementary report filings. All of the elector organizations above have been cooperative with Elections BC throughout the entire process.
“If potential contraventions are substantiated, the elector organization will be subject to enforcement action, which can include administrative monetary penalties,” the release states.
Chris Williams and Sacheen Collecut ran under the Spirit Alliance banner in the 2022 Kelowna election. Williams finished 20th out 32 candidates with 4,747 votes and Collecut finished 24th with 3,070 votes.
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