Drugs and deaths mar Canada Sikh elections

As the gurdwara vote was being held at polling stations across the lower mainland, five young Indo-Canadians were shot in a conflict with a rival gang outside a Surrey pub. One of the five remains in a critical condition in hospital and may not survive.

Bhandal said the violence has reached epidemic proportions and all agencies, police forces and community leaders must work together to see what can be done, the Vancouver Sun reported. Bhandal’s moderate group swept all positions for the executive of the Khalsa Diwan Society that runs the gurdwara. With more than 80,000 voting members, it is the largest and oldest in the North American continent, the Sun said. More than 18,000 people voted, with Bhandal’s group taking 10,500 votes to about 7,500 for the opponents in an election held amid tight police security.

The opposing slate was made up of a splinter moderate group, backed by hardliners against the use of table and chairs in the gurdwara’s dining hall, including former members of the separatist International Sikh Youth Federation, the World Sikh Organisation and the Babbar Khalsa.

But the table and chairs issue, which led to violence at the gurdwaras four years ago, did not figure prominently during the election campaign, even though Bhandal and fellow candidate Kashmir Singh Dhaliwal were on a list of six moderate Sikhs excommunicated by the Akal Takht in 1998.