107-1025 Scarlett Road
Etobicoke, Ontario M9P 3V3
November 16, 2000

Mayor and City Council
Toronto City Hall
100 Queen Street West, 1st Floor,
West Tower Toronto, Ontario
M5H 2N2

Subject: November 13th Municipal Election
Mayor and City Council

I m writing to challenge and dispute the validity of election results of November 13th Municipal Elections in Etobicoke North for the School Board Trustee.

I was alarmed at first, to see the city of Toronto's web site about the ethnic composition of the Greater Toronto Area that, all the Wards Somalis are not mentioned or listed as residents of the City of Toronto.

Something the city needs to address immediately the transient "Status of Somalis" and other newcomers and recognize them as part of the ethnic make of our city if we want to be true to our diverse reality.

The City needs to design a program to help build a more inclusive and cohesive society by addressing three goals: social justice, identity and civic participation.

According to the Municipal Elections Act, 1969 Section 83 of the Controverted Elections, I am challenging the results because of voting irregularities such as: intimidations where at one occasion the police were called in and one of my volunteers was charged with trespassing, at times voting places at 320 Dixon Rd. and 380 Dixon Rd. were not open blocking people to vote forcing them to wait in long lines and many have left especially those who were elderly, frail and sick.

Furthermore, unnecessary excessive checks were subjected to residents of 320 Dixon Rd and 380 Dixon Rd which have caused a lot of delays, voters were given a wrong ballot (Catholic School Board ballots) and many voters were denied to vote because the landlords were on the voter's list and may have voted.

Also, ballots were confusing no columns dividing between the Candidates for Mayor, Councilor or Trustee, voters were denied access to interpreters to explain voting procedures and the pen to mark the ballots its ink leaks through the ballot paper making it difficult for the machine to read and tabulate properly while at times when voters incorrectly marked a ballot the machine spited out the ballots and voters were not given new ballot to cast their vote.

The Manager at voting locations 320 Dixon (voting subdivision 23) that were wife and husband team and the Manager at 370 Dixon (voting subdivision 26) were abusive yelling at people, insulting people and pushing them, wasting time horsing around s and refused to give us results when the polls were closed.

Everywhere you turn there is frustration and many votes should have gone to me since approximately 13 percent of Somalis in the Greater Toronto Area live in Etobicoke North but as result of the irregularity on the part of the clerks the Somali vote was surprised.

Given the above, I am requesting a hand recount of all the votes at voting locations 320 Dixon Rd, 370 Dixon Rd, 380 Dixon Rd, 390 Dixon (voting subdivisions 23, 26, 27, and 28 respectively), Westmount Public School (voting subdivision 31) and St Andrews Church (voting subdivision 29).

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Abdi Ulusso
cc: Novina Wong City Clerk