Beyond general elections: How could foreign actors influence the prime ministership?
| Published date | 01 March 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00207020241234240 |
| Author | Ronaldo Au-Yeung,Alsu Tagirova |
| Date | 01 March 2024 |
| Subject Matter | Policy Briefs |
Beyond general elections:
How could foreign actors
influence the prime
ministership?
Ronaldo Au-Yeung
Department of Political Science, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby,
British Columbia, Canada
Alsu Tagirova
Academy of History and Documentation of Socialism, East China
Normal University, Shanghai, China
Abstract
Recent reports of election interference ring alarm bells about the vulnerability of the
Canadian political process. We examine a different but potentially more perilous
loophole in the electoral process beyond general elections to demonstrate how for-
eign actors could directly influence the prime ministership through the manipulation
of party membership. We suggest that foreign actors could influence the selection
process of party leadership and, consequently, the prime ministership, simply by pur-
chasing party memberships that distribute ballots in leadership elections without iden-
tity verification. After introducing China and Russia’s strategies to influence Canadian
politics, we offer a few recommendations to address the party membership loophole.
These include identity verification at the time of membership registration and ballot
mail-in, flagging membership irregularities, additional and dedicated funding to political
parties to build robust cybersecurity practices, and creating additional content in lan-
guages other than English or French to mitigate the influence of state–controlled or
sponsored media on immigrant and diaspora communities.
Corresponding author:
Ronaldo Au-Yeung, Department of Political Science, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive,
Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6, Canada.
Email: rouyang@sfu.ca
Policy Brief
International Journal
2024, Vol. 79(1) 149–159
© The Author(s) 2024
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/00207020241234240
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