A “highly unethical” membership drive was held March 12 at the Edmonton Islamic Academy, alleges 2021 Edmonton mayoralty candidate Malik Chukwudi..“The event was organized by the Somalian community, and three Islamic mosques came together. They put this event together for Kenney,” Chukwudi told the Western Standard..About 100 people attended and signed up for UCP memberships..“There’s no person, nobody there, that paid anything. People lined up and they were filling out forms.”.Chukwudi said he had registered online three weeks earlier and paid the $99 fee..He registered again at the event to see what would happen..“So, I went and signed up as proof that I didn’t pay anything. I registered. My name is there, and I didn’t pay a damn thing.”.“They didn’t charge me anything.”.Chukwudi claimed that Premier Jason Kenney spoke into the microphone and urged attendees to “just go and sign up.” .“He said the most important thing was to register.”.Kenney spokesman Harrison Fleming denied the claims..“Every party membership our campaign sold and submitted to the party for processing contained payment from the individual who purchased it. Allegations that we didn’t collect payment from individuals who purchased memberships through our campaign are false,” said Fleming..UCP spokesman Dave Prisco told the Western Standard that it’s the responsibility of new members — not the pro or anti Kenney campaigns — to ensure dues are paid by the individuals signing up..“Any individual who fraudulently signs a membership application will have their submission quickly revoked. The onus is on the individual to be honest and not sign something they know to be untrue. If they lied on the application, their membership will be cancelled,” he said..Prisco said when individuals join the party, they must personally sign off on a statement attesting they paid for the membership themselves..“We have no record of Mr. Chukwudi purchasing a membership this year. He may have tried to test the system, but it did not succeed.”.The Western Standard also contacted Chukwudi Wednesday afternoon and he stuck by his story..Kenney’s leadership review vote was originally scheduled to be an in-person vote in Red Deer on April 9. Then the party decided the potential numbers of voters could cause headaches. They considered holding the vote over three separate days in three cities. It was then finally decided on a mail-in ballot with the results to be announced May 18..Strong sales of UCP memberships in constituencies with large concentrations of religious and ethnic minority communities spurred a 36% growth of membership in the last 30 days, according to UCP documents obtained by the Western Standard..The document shows 20 constituencies were flagged as ‘ethnic.’ Ten of those constituencies saw the number of members jump more than 50% in the last 30 days..But a source in the UCP told the Western Standard that approximately 5,000 of the last-minute memberships were sold improperly using a “very small number” of common credit cards..The source spoke with the Western Standard on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss internal party matters..“The party has admitted that there were membership portals and that a small number of credit cards are responsible for about 5,000 of the last minute memberships, largely in ethnic ridings,” the source told the Western Standard..“There is reason to believe that over 55,000 of 59,000 of the total membership are either longer-term members or new members who used their own credit cards.”.Recently-appointed chief returning officer for the leadership review and former PC cabinet Minister Rick Orman did not deny 5,000 new members had signed up using common credit cards, but said that the source was insulting ethnic minority communities, and that the process will be credible and verifiable..“First off, I have no problem with the ethnic aspect of it being a former MLA from Northeast Calgary,” Orman told the Western Standard. “That is impugning some motive that the ethnic community can be herded around in a way that other people can’t. I think that’s actually shameful. And it’s not accurate.”.“There’s a couple of fail-safe methods that are built into the system to prevent any sort misuse of the membership process and the verification of the membership holder and how it’s paid for.”.“Anybody that buys a membership sends in their credit card details. Those credit card details will at some point be matched up with the ballots to make sure that the person that bought the membership is the person whose name is on the ballot.”.The growth was led by large ethnic communities in Calgary, and Edmonton, along with Brooks..The records show UCP membership now stands at more than 59,000, with 21,000 of them sold in the last 30 days. .Slobodian is the Senior Manitoba Columnist for the Western Standard.,.lslobodian@westernstandardonline.com
