Article content continued

Two persons of interest have been identified and interviewed, but police have not yet determined whether criminal charges or charges under the Local Government Act will be recommended.

Wake Up Surrey spokesperson Sukhi Sandhu said the investigation results thus far validate the organization’s concerns.

Photo by Sukhi Sandhu / Facebook

“It’s a sad day for our city, it’s a sad day for democracy in our city that due to the unethical behaviour of a small group our reputation has been tarnished,” Sandhu said.

Sandhu said that if Wake Up Surrey, the city and police had not acted so quickly, the fraud would have been much worse.

“We believe this was just the tip of the iceberg,” he said.

Safe Surrey Coalition mayoral candidate Doug McCallum thanked Wake Up Surrey for bringing the fraud concerns to the attention of the authorities.

“The election fraud appears to be stopped in its tracks,” he said. “At the end of the day, I hope those responsible face criminal charges.”

Surrey First mayoral candidate Tom Gill said he had hoped the investigation would be wrapped up this week, but he appreciates the update from police. In particular, he was happy to see that there was no link to any one party or candidate — despite the rumours that have circulated on social media — and that the scope of the fraud was smaller than initially alleged.

He lamented the fact that the allegations had distracted from the election campaign.

“It’s horrible that you have one or two or three individuals that are responsible for creating such chaos in the community,” Gill said. “It’s unfortunate that social media has picked up these allegations and permitted people to be slanderous, and hide behind a veil and make commentary that’s inappropriate.”