Shuvaloy Majumdar, a top Kenney adviser, said UCP candidate tried to ‘hijack democracy’ and showed ‘poor moral character’

UCP Candidate Was Accused of Election Fraud By Top Jason Kenney Adviser Back When They Were in College

UCP Candidate Was Accused of Election Fraud By Top Jason Kenney Adviser Back When They Were in College

One of United Conservative Party leader Jason Kenney’s highest-ranking advisors accused a current UCP candidate of stealing voting IDs to cast fake votes during a student election back in 2003.

Shuvaloy Majumdar, a top Kenney adviser, has been a central player in both of two scandals currently under investigation by the RCMP: the kamikaze scandal, as well as new revelations about an alleged scheme to use fraudulent e-mails to that were successfully used to cast fake votes in the 2017 UCP leadership.

But in the early 2000s at the University of Calgary, Majumdar served as the Chief Returning Officer in a controversial student election that saw Mickey Amery, the UCP candidate for Calgary-Cross, slapped with several election code violations.

According to November 2003 story published in The Gauntlet, Amery and another candidate were accused of walking around campus with a laptop asking students to give them their voting IDs and then casting votes on their behalf.

The Gauntlet reported one student said she “put in her ID number” and Amery “put in the vote.”

In his by-election report to the Students’ Legislative Council, Majumdar wrote that the future UCP candidate “hijacked democracy” and showed “poor moral character” by stealing voting IDs and casting fake votes.

Amery “demonstrated poor moral character and made the wrong moral choices,” Majumdar concluded.

The Kenney adviser also warned the scheme may be a “signal of trends to come.”

Asked about Majumdar’s election fraud accusations, Amery told PressProgress he remembers events differently from how they were reported at the time.

“I think there was some discussion about whether or not using wireless laptops was an issue,” Amery said. “But at the end of the day. I think the CRO concluded that they didn’t find anything there.”

Amery told PressProgress he has fonder memories of his time in student politics, recalling how he would “assist in making policy” and go to “various events.”

Former student council members recalled Amery “wasn’t particularly adept from a policy standpoint, in terms of coming up with legislation to propose,” adding he “wasn’t particularly snappy” either.

“If he was, it’s news to me,” the former classmate said.

According to The Gauntlet, Amery “did not produce any tangible results” during his time in office, “other than joke motions in (Student Legislative Council) meetings and a malicious and time-wasting … desire to pester President Jayna Gilchrist.”

Asked about his relationship with Majumdar, Amery said the two had drifted apart.

“I haven’t talked to him in a very long time.” Amery said of Majumdar. “We don’t keep in touch.”

The Gauntlet’s archives note Majumdar was fired as CRO following widespread chaos during the 2003 U of C student council elections, with one elected official indicating they were disappointed the future Kenney adviser hadn’t “fulfilled the expectations of the council.”

Majumdar did not respond to requests for comment from PressProgress.