EDMONTON—Rachel Notley, leader of Alberta’s official Opposition, is calling for a special prosecutor from outside the province to oversee the investigation into alleged voter fraud in the 2017 United Conservative Party leadership race.

On Thursday, at a press conference at the Federal Building, the leader of Alberta’s NDP said she had written to Philip Bryden, deputy attorney general, asking him to appoint a special prosecutor to oversee any decision-making around prosecutions and investigations.

Notley said she also wrote to ethics commissioner Marguerite Trussler to ask her to consider conflict of interest in the investigation now that Premier Jason Kenney and newly appointed Solicitor General Doug Schweitzer have statutory authority over Alberta’s Crown Prosecution Services and the RCMP. Both Kenney and Schweitzer were candidates in the 2017 leadership race.

“The longer that we are in a position where we have people investigating their bosses, the more jeopardy we put public faith into our justice system,” she said.

The election commissioner is investigating allegations that former UCP candidate Jeff Callaway’s 2017 leadership bid was orchestrated by Kenney’s team to attack Kenney’s main rival, former Wildrose leader Brian Jean, as well as allegations of donation and voting irregularities in the race.

The RCMP also appears to be involved in the investigation.

Read more:

Lawyers for Jeff Callaway argue UCP kamikaze investigation in ‘bad faith’ in push for emergency injunction

‘Alberta is open for business’ as Jason Kenney’s UCP claims majority

Jason Kenney stands by candidate after RCMP search, says he has no new information

Notley said it was important that the special prosecutor be from outside Alberta because of how much authority the premier and solicitor general hold.

“Although there are safeguards in place, they still have too much authority,” she said. “At the very least, we absolutely seek out robustly independent oversight of this process. The only way to do that, is from outside of Alberta.”

She said although Alberta’s election commissioner works independently, there are ways for the government to interfere.

“The government ... does have the ability to rewrite the rules and the role of the election commissioner,” she said.

Notley said she decided to take this step after looking at other jurisdictions where “this kind of thing” has happened.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

“Other provinces have very clear, transparent rules when you appoint special prosecutors. Alberta’s are less clear, but we do have precedent,” she said.

With files from Emma McIntosh

Read more about: