Final Canadian results of elections to the World Zionist Congress delayed nearly three weeks – so far

Officials checking voting ‘anomalies’ including why nearly 200 people may have illegally voted in U.S. elections, too.

by Ellin Bessner, for the Canadian Jewish News 

(CJN) Some candidates for Canada’s 19 allocated seats on the World Zionist Congress (WZC) are expressing frustration and also concern about the delay in releasing the final results of the June election, a delay which The CJN has learned is because of an investigation underway to rule out any fraud.

The Canadian Zionist Federation (CZF) election office has already revealed preliminary election results to the heads of the nine official Canadian slates in the running. Voting opened on June 5 and closed on June 15.

However, election organizers have held back final numbers. They have spent nearly three weeks since voting ended carefully checking “anomalies” and other “red flags” that appeared with some of the votes, sources told The CJN.

The aim is to ensure the Canadian elections are not marred by the kind of massive voter fraud that appears to have happened during the recent Zionist elections in the United States. Despite a record turnout there, six U.S. slates were identified as “bad actors”, and the American Zionist election team disallowed tens of thousands of paper ballots.

Similarly, the U.K.’s Jewish community postponed that country’s Zionist election by a month, until July 6, after suspected illegal registration by Haredi supporters, among other problems.

“They told us they’re investigating suspicious activity, which could affect the outcome,” said Jeff Denaburg, of Toronto, a co-chair of the Canadian Reform movement’s ARZA slate. “The wait is frustrating but of course we want the CZF to do whatever is necessary to ensure the integrity of the final count.”

While Denaburg was given the breakdown of preliminary results, including voter turnout and ballots for each slate, he would not comment on the results.

“If it turns out that any of the voting in the Canadian election was not legitimate, it would be disappointing, but not totally surprising,” he said, referring to the scandal-plagued U.S. situation. “We hope we’ll have a better experience in Canada, but we don’t have inside information on the investigation here, so we have to wait for updates from CZF.”

Denaburg is one of 273 candidates in the much-publicized Canadian elections to the WZC. Up for grabs is the right to represent the fourth-largest Jewish community in the world at this fall’s 39th World Zionist Congress meeting in Israel.

Click here to continue reading this article written by Ellin Bessner and published by Canadian Jewish News.