The provincial New Democrats have moved up their leadership vote by a couple of months.
At a meeting of the party's provincial council in Moose Jaw on Saturday, it was decided to change the date of the vote to March 3, 2018, with the leadership convention taking place in Regina.
Previously, May 6 had been set as the date.
Some additional deadlines have have announced as well. The deadline for candidates to enter the race is Jan. 12, 2018, while Jan. 19 is set as the closing deadline for party membership sales. All those who have purchased memberships by that date will be eligible to vote for the new leader, either through online voting or by mail-in ballot.
It had been rumoured for a number of days that the NDP would be moving up the date of their leadership vote, in the wake of the Saskatchewan Party's scheduling of their own leadership vote for Jan. 27 of next year.
For those candidates running for NDP leader, they must be a member in good standing of the Saskatchewan NDP; must provide signatures of no fewer than 200 party members (at least 100 of whom must self-identify as women) in good standing who support the candidate’s nomination representing a minimum of forty provincial constituencies. Candidates must also provide a non-refundable registration fee of $4,000; receive approval from the Saskatchewan NDP to seek the leadership; and the candidate's campaign expenditures are limited to a maximum of $200,000.
To this point there are two declared candidates in the NDP leadership contest: Ryan Meili and Trent Wotherspoon.
