EDMONTON—Seventeen members of a United Conservative constituency association in Calgary have resigned because of what the former president describes as “dictatorial” leadership that betrays the party’s grassroots beginnings.

In a letter to party leadership Thursday, the president of the association for Calgary-Falconridge blasts the party for not consulting with the association enough, saying its members were left out of decisions about memberships and nomination candidates, prompting the mass exodus.

“Instead of grassroots participation, we have suffered from top-down dictatorial behaviour on the part of party officials and employees,” writes president Raman Seetal in the letter.

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UCP Leader Jason Kenney has previously said that he wanted the direction of the party to be fuelled by the grassroots members and not by party leadership, calling it the “grassroots guarantee.”

The letter, obtained by StarMetro, is addressed to UCP executive director Janice Harrington and constituency development co-ordinator Kalee Kent. Constituency associations are groups of volunteers who form in electoral ridings and who are endorsed by a political party. They typically help out with fundraising and collecting contributions.

A statement from the UCP says they “strongly reject the accusations” in the letter, and said the resignations were triggered after a former nomination candidate related to several members was disqualified.

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The letter alleges that the party “totally ignored” recommendations for selecting nomination candidates in the riding. They claimed they weren’t consulted on the timing of the nominations, the decision-making process, and they said their local committee overseeing the nomination was “stripped of its very limited authority.”

Furthermore, the letter alleges that decisions around who was approved or dismissed as nomination candidates for the riding were never explained to the constituency leadership.

The letter claims that longtime political organizer and UCP volunteer Alan Hallman was put in charge of managing the party’s nomination process and “put himself out as being second only to our leader (Kenney) in importance.”

Hallman helped Kenney’s campaign in 2017 when Kenney was vying for the leadership of the Progressive Conservatives, until he was suspended from the party for one year over controversial tweets.

He did not respond to requests for comment and a statement from the UCP did not address questions submitted regarding Hallman’s involvement in the constituency.

The letter further alleges members complained that not all membership sales were submitted on time — pointing to about 2,500 allegedly sold over four days in August — but the UCP statement said it isn’t abnormal for memberships to be submitted in batches.

“We felt like our riding and the nomination contests from our riding were being held to different standards and rules than the nomination contestants in other ridings,” Seetal writes in the letter.

But the UCP statement suggested that the resignations were fuelled by the disqualification of Happy Mann, a potential nomination candidate who was rejected from running in the riding earlier in 2018.

“The former (constituency association) board in question was aligned with disqualified nomination contestant Happy Mann,” the statement said. “A number of the former board members are Mr. Mann’s associates and family, including his sister, Ms. Seetal, who served as the (constituency association) president. We are not surprised by these individuals’ actions, given the disqualification of Mr. Mann.”

Mann ran for the Wildrose in the 2012 and 2015 elections, losing both times. Earlier this year, his supporters were accused of assaulting a local radio host over a Facebook post criticizing Mann. His candidacy for Calgary-Falconridge was subsequently rejected by the party.

In a letter sent by the party to Mann disqualifying him, officials expressed concerns about Mann’s apparent flippant response to the alleged assault. Party officials also had concerns because he failed to disclose “important” information about his involvement with a commercial real-estate investment development.

“It is incumbent upon the party to ensure that a local nomination process is fair and does not favour one candidate due to the composition of a board. The party acted responsibly,” the UCP statement read.

“Mr. Mann’s motivations are quite clear, as are the frivolous allegations in this letter.”

When contacted for an interview by StarMetro, Seetal declined to provide further comment, saying the letter itself was self-explanatory.

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The UCP says the party “looks forward to forming a replacement board in Calgary-Falconridge willing to adequately represent the over 6,000 members in that riding.”

With files from Andrew Jeffrey