Dozens of Anjali Appadurai Supporters Protest her Disqualification from the NDP Leadership Race

About 80 disappointed Anjali Appadurai supporters rose in protest at a press conference she hosted before the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, denouncing her controversial disqualification from the NDP leadership race on dubious grounds of irregularities suggesting a hostile takeover by grassroots organisations.

Before anything else, I would like to point out that I stay away from partisan politics in principle, which means I do not endorse any candidates or political parties. I decided to cover this event because I am sympathetic to the grassroots movement’s grievances, and in this case there is no avoiding allegations that the race was rigged in favour of the establishment candidate.

The press conference was set to begin at 1:30PM, but Appadurai was delayed and the event sort of started without her, some supporters giving speeches expressing their outrage at a process which sidelined their candidates, silenced their voices, and obstructed their agendas. Just like the NDP of old, Appadurai ran as a champion of social progressive and environmental causes, and plenty felt betrayed by a party they had been supporting from the beginning only to find out in the end its ultimate incarnation was everything they had fought against. Allegations of irregularities rankled quite a few of them, especially since these implied her supporters were actually outsiders, whereas the only parties the NDP would consider insiders are big campaign contributors, the logging industry, and oil companies.

The actual press conference started shortly before 5PM. Appadurai took the loss with philosophy, as if she’d expected nothing else from the start. While she indignantly denounced the decision to disqualify her and challenged every claim made against her campaign, her initial intentions were to remain as a faction leader within the NDP instead of leaving the party, but she admitted not to have any specific plans at this date, only that she wasn’t quitting politics or her fight to change the system from within.

There is no avoiding making a parallel between this debacle and the allegations the Democratic National Committee sidelined Bernie Sanders during the 2016 Democratic primary in favour of Hillary Clinton, only worse because at least in that case the losing candidate wasn’t altogether disqualified hours before the vote. The problem with such scenarios isn’t what actually happens, but what it looks like: an unfair playing field silencing dissenting voices. And when one’s party has the word ‘democratic’ in it, appearance of antidemocratic practices is enough to discredit the party in question, just like the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (better known as North Korea) holding a vote with ‘Kim Jong Un‘ being the only name on the ballot.

The aftermath is of course a PR debacle. It would have been far wiser for the NDP caucus to let Appadurai run and lose; David Eby would be premier anyway and the party’s image would be no more tarnished than it already was. Whereas if she’d won instead, well perhaps that would have been for the best then, as the party looks like it’s in urgent need of a face lift if it’s to convince the newest generation of voters that it’s serious about addressing society’s ills—especially those it’s accused of causing to begin with.