Sikh Sangat Says They Have Asked For Delay In Elections Due To Membership Issues!
The Sikh Sangat Seva Society put water on the claims of the current executive of the Khalsa Diwan Society (Ross Street) that no opposition party ran against them and a new committee had been formed, news of which hit the airways on Thursday afternoon. Sikh Sangat Seva Society stated that they will fight the election once the court decides on the fairness of the election process.
VANCOUVER – The Ross Gurdwara election process gets messy as the Sikh Sangat Society take the current Khalsa Diwan Society (Ross Street) to court to get what they say should be a fair election.
The Sikh Sangat Seva Society also put water on the claims of the current executive that no opposition party ran against them and a new committee had been formed, news of which hit the airways on Thursday afternoon.
“We wanted to work everything out fairly and we wanted the whole process to be transparent. Over two years ago we requested verbally, in writing and then finally were forced to seek the legal route. They would not give us the requested number of membership forms, no voters list, and no representative was allowed to be present at the enrollment. They have picked up membership forms from people’s homes while our supporters were scrutinized and sent home many times for “inadequate” proofs,” said Sikh Sangat Seva Society, stating that they will fight the election once the court decides on the fairness of the election process.
Sikh Sangat said many breaches of the constitution and the enrollment process have been found that are now being challenged.
“Sikh Sangat requested to work together to avoid the unnecessary legal costs but they told us to go to court. For financial statements dating back to 2010 they told us to see Revenue Canada. There are many memberships forms that were fraudulently submitted in which the forms were signed by a questionable party, signatures do not match and in some cases one person has been given three memberships and all three forms are signed by different people. They did not allow our representation at the enrollment process so this fraud could take place,” said Sikh Sangat Seva Society.
Sikh Sagat said that their lawyer has served their counsel that no election can take place until the case is heard and all issues are resolved.
“Memberships form were still be scrutinized up until Wednesday by Sikh Sangat under the watchful eye of the current executive so why did they rush to make this big announcement just a day after knowing that nothing is resolved and no election can take place yet. Now they are lying that they ran un-opposed. The details of all their breaches will be made public shortly as the legal case progresses,” said Sikh Sangat Seva Society.
“It’s pretty funny how they can stuff membership forms that are signed by different people and then a few weeks before the deadline bring a third party to watch the process so that they can tell people that they did everything fairly. Instead of wasting money on this third person they could have had a Sikh Sangat representative present and the whole process could have been fair and we would not be fighting in court now,” they added.
