How many votes does it take to win a 32-candidate by-election?
2,359 out of 13,279.
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”
Communism is alive and well in Alberta.
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.
This reminds me of the 2003 California gubernatorial recall election, with 135 candidates.
@ 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??