Wildrose MLA Joe Anglin says nomination rules broken

A Wildrose MLA says his party is doomed if it continues to allow rule-breaking and nepotism, after he says a constituency president broke the rules in seeking the party's nomination in Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre.

According to Wildrose Party rules, members of constituency executive boards must step down if they wish to seek a nomination. But Joe Anglin, who represents Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre, says his local constituency president didn't step down for a week after entering the race and that should disqualify him from running.

"What's going on here is a process that is not following the rules," said Anglin. "Any executive on the board who wants to run for a nomination has to step down first, before they file their papers and before they start campaigning ... because the executives have access to information that even I don't as an MLA. That creates a fair process and this person did not do that."

Anglin says the party is breaking its own rules to force him into a contested nomination battle.

However, the Wildrose Party rejects his criticism, with Leader Danielle Smith saying she stands by the party's executive committee to let the individual members sort out the concerns in the nomination vote.

"I think they made the right decision, that it really should be up to the members to decide," Smith said. "If the members want to affirm the sitting candidate, they will."

Anglin says the party is playing favourites and that nepotism is starting to creep in, which he says would destroy the party's identity as a grassroots party.

"That's why I'm speaking out now ... it has to stop," he said. "If it doesn't, we're doomed. We're no different than anybody else."

The nomination meeting for the constituency will be held on July 4 and 5.