Election violation will be posted online

Violations of provincial election financing laws from the last three years will be posted online by the end of the month, with future infractions to follow suit.

The Election Accountability Amendment Act came into effect Tuesday and will allow chief electoral officer Brian Fjeldheim to release details of investigations where violations have occurred, going back to December 2009.

Fjeldheim had maintained that provisions of the previous legislation did not allow him to post investigation results unless criminal charges had been laid — a rare occurrence in Alberta.

“It removes the prohibit i ons t hat were there previously,” Elections Alberta spokesman Drew Westwater said Wednesday. “So we can ... report publicly on them and we’re happy to do so.”

Westwater said the results will include the date of the offence, the name of the contributor and recipient, the circumstances of the illegal donation, the amount involved and penalty assessed.

Donations to the long-governing Progressive Conservative party from “prohibited corporations,” such as municipalities, school divisions and post-secondary institutions, became a major controversy in provincial politics over the last year.

The changes to legislation passed last fall by the Tory government were attacked as toothless by the opposition parties, who wanted new restrictions on corporate and union donations and full disclosure of all violations dating back to 2004.

Under the new law, the chief electoral officer will now be able to impose administrative penalties equal to the donation amount on parties and constituency associations. Previously, Elections Alberta could only apply such penalties to the donors.

There will also be new disclosure rules for leadership campaigns and new quarterly reporting of political donations.

It removes the prohibitions that were there previously

DREW WESTWATER, ELECTIONS ALBERTA