Elections Canada said Friday it is investigating more than 31,000 complaints of alleged dirty tricks during last year’s election won by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Tories. The “high volume” of complaints regarding “robocalls” that misdirected voters to fake polling stations for the May 2, 2011 election is 100 times more than the elections watchdog usually receives for any Canadian ballot. “Elections Canada is reviewing these and will take action as appropriate,” spokesman John Enright said in an email.
The automated telephone calls to voters that likely led some to give up on voting have cast suspicion on the election results, and provoked heated exchanges in parliament this week. The opposition parties, whose supporters were apparently targeted, pointed fingers at the Conservatives, but the Conservatives denied any involvement while hitting back at what they claimed was a “smear campaign.”
“A little bit of monkey business and tampering undermines the integrity of our institutions,” opposition New Democratic Party MP Pat Martin said Friday. “On this scale, I’m telling you, it sabotages our democratic institutions.” “This is an unsubstantiated smear campaign that’s entirely lacking of evidence,” countered Dean Del Mastro, parliamentary secretary to the prime minister. Del Mastro also suggested that the third-ranked Liberals may be behind the rogue calls.
Full Article: Government shifts blame in robo-call scandal – Yahoo! News.