Its been a wild day in Alberta politics for the Wildrose Independence Party (WIP) as Paul Hinman claims he has been named the leader of the party again after a vote of non-confidence..However, the Board of Governors for the WIP said he took over the meeting and is not the leader..On Saturday, Hinman told the Western Standard the board had been voted out. ."They disrespected and broke our own bylaws with appointing new people until they got a majority," Hinman told the Western Standard via phone moments after the vote. ."They basically took over communications; they took over, you know, this AGM was about our policy and our governance. They removed that from the AGM.".Hinman said members were livid with the actions the board was taking.."They weren't even putting up open positions for members to vote on saying, no they were going to appoint people after the AGM for those positions," he said. ."The rule is that they would decide what policies and what governance policies could be voted on by the members. They actually disqualified a number of individuals that put their money in to run on the provincial board declaring that they had spoken out against the provincial board and therefore they were disqualified to run in this AGM."."Bottom line. I mean, the room was unanimous in voting them out. It was basically unanimous inside the room to vote me back in as leader and to remove the board and their interim leader and we've taken the party back to the members where it belongs. We're just in the process of finishing the vote for a new Board of Governors.".The Board of Governors said a group of people following the former leader, disenfranchised the vote of over 400 members at the AGM.."We are a party of principles and this action demonstrated a disregard for our by-laws that had been approved by our members," said the Board of Governors, adding, "This is exactly what we can not stand for as a party."."The board attempted to conduct our AGM, which was interrupted and ultimately ended, when the former leader entered the meeting without permission and allowed his supporters to take over the meeting. The result of this action is that the AGM chair was required to end the meeting," the Board of Governors said.."It must be noted that these actions are in complete violation of our bylaws and anything that happened subsequent to that event is out of order and without force. Please disregard any communication coming from anyone claiming to be the new board or from our former leader."."The positions that were open and to be voted on remain vacant and the board will meet shortly to determine next steps.".More to come....
