Civil liberties group gets standing in election suit

A national civil liberties group has been granted intervenor status in a lawsuit over provincial election law in Newfoundland and Labrador.

"We’re not looking to restrict the rights of voters to vote in advance polls ... and special ballots," Mark Watton, a lawyer for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, told reporters Tuesday.

However, Watton said there may be an issue with allowing people to vote for a candidate who hasn’t actually been selected yet. Recent changes to Newfoundland and Labrador election law allow that to happen.

The NDP has filed a Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador challenge, maintaining that the province’s special balloting rules are unconstitutional.

"If people don’t know who the candidates are for all the parties, if there isn’t an equal opportunity to have the information, to be aware of what the candidates’ positions are, then those people who cast their ballot are at a disadvantage," NDP provincial president Kathleen Connors said.

Chief Justice David Orsborn agreed to the CCLA’s request to act as intervenor.

Proceedings resume in late March.

This is the NDP’s second challenge to the results of the October provincial election in the district of Burin-Placentia West.

NDP candidate Julie Mitchell lost the seat by just 40 votes to Progressive Conservative cabinet minister Clyde Jackman.

A judge rejected the NDP’s initial request for a recount.

The NDP then took aim at the province’s special balloting rules, which allow residents to vote up to four weeks before the writ is dropped for an election call.

The party’s lawsuit calls those provisions "a violation of democratic and constitutional norms of Canada and the Commonwealth."

The NDP initially supported the changes to election law when they were introduced in 2007.