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Alberta Politics

Moe Banga wins Edmonton’s Ward 12 by-election

How many votes does it take to win a 32-candidate by-election?

2,359 out of 13,279.

Moe Banga Edmonton City Council
Moe Banga

Edmonton Police Detective and community volunteer Moe Banga was elected to Edmonton City Council with 18 percent of the vote in today’s Ward 12 by-election to replace Amarjeet Sohi. The race attracted 32 candidates, a record number in Edmonton city council electoral history.

Despite the 32-way split, Mr. Banga finished more than one thousand votes ahead of his five main competitors, Laura Thibert, Arundeep Sandhu, Irfan Chaudhry, Nav Kaur and Danisha Bhaloo.

This is not the first time Mr. Banga attempted to seek political office. In June 2014, he was disqualified from the federal Conservative Party nomination contest in the Edmonton-Wetaskiwin riding. It was never made completely clear why he was removed from the contest.

Mr. Banga will now serve on city council until the next general election in October 2017.

Here is a full list of the unofficial results from the February 22, 2016 Ward 12 by-election:

1 AHMAD Shani 20
2 BALE Jason 37
3 BANGA Moe 2,359
4 BHALOO Danisha 843
5 BUJOR Victor Viorel 37
6 BUTLER Mike 371
7 CHAMCHUK Nick 222
8 CHAUDHRY Irfan 950
9 GILL Jag 169
10 GORMAN Andrew 40
11 HENDERSON Brian 541
12 HO Lincoln 146
13 JHAJJ Sam 612
14 JOHNSTONE Dan 436
15 KADLA Kelly A. 33
16 KAUR Nav 888
17 KOOPMANS R. Joey 5
18 KOZIAK Don 260
19 MANHAS Balraj Singh 466
20 MCKINNON Terry J. 49
21 PATEL Rakesh 542
22 PIETERSE Field 315
23 SANDHU Arundeep Singh 1,106
24 SEKHON Nirpal 29
25 SHARMA Yash 334
26 SHEORAN Jagat Singh 122
27 STEVENS Jeri 90
28 SZYMANOWKA Nicole 193
29 THIBERT Laura 1,283
30 TOOR Preet 665
31 TOOR Steve ‘CP’ 93
32 WUTZKE Stephen 23

4 replies on “Moe Banga wins Edmonton’s Ward 12 by-election”

This problem is easily fixed by allowing voters to rank the various candidates 1, 2, 3… instead of restricting voters to a single x mark on the ballot. This small change together with a proper vote empowers the majority to elect whoever they wish instead of having no say in the outcome as in this case.

In the 2015 Federal election, for example 206 of the 338 MP declared elected is where the majority never voted for them.

This voting system is used in Australia, several jurisdictions in the US as well as by the former Canadian Wheat Board director elections as well as by all of Canada’s federal parties when they elect a leader.

@ Jamie: Would you care to explain please?
I mean, the people elected an ex-cop and two right -leaning candidates finished in 2nd and 3rd positions (WRP’s Thibert and PC’s Sandhu) while the NDP-backed Kaur kinda flamed out.
What more does a conservative expect??

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