Zohran Mamdani would likely have been blocked by the NDP’s three person vetting committee. Fortunately, the Democratic Party doesn’t “vet” candidates seeking to participate in the New York City mayoral primary.
According to New York election rules, to participate in the primary one has about a month to gather 3,750 signatures from registered voters. “At the start of the year”, reported the New York Times, “Zohran Mamdani was polling at 1%. Few New Yorkers recognized his name, and his own political team put the odds of winning as low as 3%.”
There are many reasons to believe the NDP vetting committee would have blocked New York’s mayor elect from running in its leadership race. Mamdani has been accused of various “misdeeds” from supporting the phrase “globalize the intifada” to labelling the city’s police department “racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety”. The NDP vetting package requires candidates to list statements they’ve made “which have/may be considered politically ‘controversial’?”
More significantly, Mamdani has been arrested on at least three occasions. Three questions in the NDP vetting document in a section on “Integrity & Accountability” focus on whether one has been arrested.
I’ve been detained at a dozen protests and have spent between one and five days in jail on three occasions. To the best of my recollection, I’ve never actually been convicted of a crime though I’ve accepted various “conditions” imposed while charges were pending. And all the charges were for political activity of one sort or another.
It’s unclear if any of the other NDP leadership candidates have been jailed in the struggle for justice. Nothing came up from a quick name search. That could be considered disqualifying, if one agrees with the alternative vettingquestionnaire my campaign released two weeks ago. Our tongue-in-cheek questionnaire asks “Have you been jailed for opposing Canadian complicity in genocide? • Yes • No • I don’t even do demos”.
Another one of the 30 questions asks, “Have you ever been disciplined or arrested for participating in a workers’, tenants’, or anti-poverty struggle? • Yes • No I prefer signing online petitions.”
On Monday I will submit to vetting. At that point the fate of the thousand-person volunteer campaign will be in the hands of the NDP’s three person vetting committee. They determine whether members can decide for themselves or whether the party brass’ desire to take my campaign’s money will be supplanted by fear of pressure from the genocide lobby and dominant media.
Let’s hope the NDP vetters don’t crush democracy. Everyone happy to see Zohran Mamdani’s rise should agree on that.
To assist, donate or learn more about my bid to lead the NDP check out yvesforndpleader.ca
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