In 1965, however, I.W. Abel challenged McDonald for the president. Abel had served as secretary-treasurer since 1952 and been a longtime McDonald supporter, but Abel strongly criticized the Human Relations Committees and promised a return to militancy to win higher wages and benefits for workers. The election was a bitter one and took place on February 9. Voting irregularities and challenged ballots delayed a final result until April 30. Abel relied heavily on voting and ballot-challenging procedures established under the relatively new Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (or "Landrum-Griffin Act"). Without the assistance of the new law, it is unclear that he would have won, but union officials and federal monitors eventually declared Abel the winner by a razor-thin margin of 10,142 votes out of 600,678 cast, and on May 20 McDonald declined to challenge the result. Over 7,000 of the votes came from Canadian locals, and Abel spent a greater amount of time than any of his predecessors protecting the interests of Canadian steelworkers locals. Abel was sworn in as president on June 2, 1965.