Booted out. Reinstated. Booted out again. Overwhelmingly..The Chestermere-Strathmore membership showed up in droves and once again ousted MLA Leela Aheer-backed constituency association (CA) board candidates at the annual general meeting (AGM) Saturday..All 30 candidates elected to three executive and 27 director positions are supporters of Chantelle de Jong who is challenging Aheer for the May 29 provincial election nomination..Aheer is running in the seven-way UCP leadership race, the results to be announced October 6..The membership showed up at the AGM in record numbers with 449 casting votes for the executive positions..“It was insane. I’ve never seen a turnout like that,” said Ronda Klemmensen, a former acting CA president who was elected as a director at the AGM held at the Strathmore Civic Centre..“I think the best turnout we ever had was 50 or so. I was shocked. When we went to that civic centre it was lined up in an S line. There were two rows of people trying to get into the door to register.”.Although the final count has not been released, local constituent Derek James From estimated that two-thirds of the membership supported de Jong..“The distribution was relatively the same all the way through,” he said..Nick Boots was elected CA president — again..Boots defeated former Chestermere councillor Chris Steeves..Boots had defeated former CA president John Kittler in January when 17 of 22 members on Aheer’s board werevoted out..They included Kittler, Aheer’s husband Malkeet Aheer who served as vice-president for membership, and her son Akesh Aheer, a board member who was defeated again Saturday..The ousted CA board filed a formal dispute notice to UCP Board President Cynthia Moore requesting that the old board be reinstated, and AGM voting results be declared void..They cited several allegations of wrongdoing, including discrepancies in the voter list, alleging they occurred in violation of the UCP’s governance bylaws..A UCP Arbitration Committee ruled in March to have the board reinstated on a technicality..It ruled the vote invalid because it was taken a day short of the 21-day notice period and reinstated the old board..Then the party read the riot act to the reinstated board when it defied an order by the Arbitration Committee to hold an annual general meeting (AGM) by the July 30 deadline..Kittler alleged it was the party’s fault that the AGM was delayed because it withheld Constituent Information Management System (CIMS) access to the membership list..That claim was disputed by the UCP that insisted the Chestermere-Strathmore board had access to the membership list..The reinstated board was ordered to hold an AGM by August 27..Meanwhile, the two other executive positions were filled by Grant Van Kammen who was elected CFO, and Kimberly Betournay, elected secretary..Only 350 ballots casts for directors..“A bunch of people walked out after the executive was elected. There were about 100 less voted caste for the directors,” said Klemmensan..The AGM was temporarily interrupted by a visit from the fire marshal. .“The votes were all held in sequence with the announcements between the votes,” said From..“So, we knew who the president was before we cast ballots for the second and third executives and all of the directors..“Everyone in the room knew that the first vote was going to be indicative of which slate was going to win the day.”.“When it was very clear the de Jong had won by a big margin, I think the writing was on the wall for the Aheer campaign.”.Someone called the fire marshal to check on the occupancy of the room..A head count showed the occupancy was below it’sapproximate 700-capacity..Meanwhile, de Jong said the AGM outcome sent a clear message..“We definitely worked hard. What today shows is a huge victory for the grassroots’.“The people I recommended were all elected.”.Aheer could not be reached for comment.
