Judge dismisses B.C. NDP's challenge of Green party candidate in Yaletown riding

A petition filed in B.C. Supreme Court by the B.C. NDP questioning the legitimacy of at least one candidate in Vancouver-Yaletown for the provincial election was dismissed by a judge on Tuesday.

The petition, filed by Ryan Crowley, identified only as a constituent assistant, alleged the nomination forms for the B.C. Green candidate and for the CentreBC candidate in that riding included nominators who didn’t follow Elections B.C. rules.

The petition was seeking an order from B.C. Supreme Court that Green candidate “Priyan Samarakoone is not a candidate in the 2026 provincial general election.”

The NDP’s lawyer, Rachel Roy, appeared before a judge at Vancouver Law Courts for a scheduled 75-minute hearing on Tuesday to argue that Samarakoone’s nomination should be withdrawn because it didn’t meet the 75-name threshold required under the Elections Act.

But the judge dismissed the petition within 10 minutes, said an NDP spokesman who asked not to be named.

He said the judge dismissed the petition because it was filed with insufficient notice to the parties under B.C.’s Evidence Act “even though nobody argued that.”

It was “the judge’s interpretation” that the process was deemed not to be followed, he said.

“The court’s decision in the application is final and cannot be appealed,” the NDP said in an email. “Unfortunately, there are no additional steps that can be taken before election day to address these issues.”

The petition, which was date stamped as being received by the court on Oct. 7, named Samarakoone as the respondent, and included that it was sent “on notice” to the Vancouver-Yaletown district electoral officer and Elections B.C. chief electoral officer.

B.C. Elections communications said in an unsigned email, “We are aware of a challenge of a candidate nomination from another party in the Vancouver-Yaletown electoral district” but “the matter is in the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.”

“There have been no changes to the candidates” in the riding, it said.

The petition said Samarakoone was declared a candidate for Vancouver-Yaletown as endorsed by the B.C. Greens and Samarth Chandola was declared a candidate for the same riding as endorsed by CentreBC.

The petition stated that eight nominators who signed Samarakoone’s papers also signed Chandola’s nomination papers and “the signatures for these individuals are different on each nomination.”

One individual signed Samarakoone’s nomination papers twice and once for Chandola, each with three different signatures, the petition claimed.

And only 14 of Samarakoone’s nominators were voters in the riding when the nomination was made, it said.

Plus 24 of the addresses for the nominators were not residential addresses, 17 of which were connected to businesses with no residential units and seven for addresses that do not exist, it said.

Elections B.C. requires a nomination must be made by 75 qualified nominators who are voters in that electoral district and who have not been a nominator for more than one candidate, it said.

The nominations must be signed by the nominators, include their names and residential addresses and be accompanied by a signed declaration they are qualified as a voter for that electoral district, according to the petition.

It also said the court must hold a hearing of a petition challenging a nomination that would allow the court enough time to give its decision within 72 hours after the petition was filed.

A message left with the B.C. Green party was not immediately returned.