Shiraz Shariff

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Shiraz Shariff (born March 1, 1954) is a politician from Alberta, Canada.

[edit] Political career

Shariff was elected to his first term in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in a hotly contested by-election in Calgary McCall on April 20, 1995 defeating Liberal Jeet Shergill and future New Democratic Party president Anne McGrath by just a few hundred votes.^[1]

He won his second term in office a couple years later in the 1997 Alberta general election. Shariff won a more comfortable plurality defeating two other candidates. He won his third term in office with a moderate increase in plurality during the 2001 Alberta general election. Shariff was nearly defeated in the 2004 Alberta general election by Liberal Darshan King, the election was one of the closest in the Calgary region.

In his final bid for office Shariff was defeated in the 2008 Alberta general election. The election was a virtual rematch of 2004 with almost all candidates being the same. Kang defeated Shariff by 98 votes after returns in the advanced polls showed he had won overwhelming victories. Kang's numbers increased upon the official recount to 118 votes.^[2] Shariff and the Progressive Conservatives have challenged the vote in court claiming that the results of the advanced polling and special ballots was tainted.^[3]

During his four terms as in office he has served as a backbencher for the Progressive Conservatives.