The first day of voting for students was disrupted in at least a dozen colleges and universities in the province due to strikes organized in the context of the march for the climate, resulting in the closure of several polling stations.
This Friday marked the first day of voting out of four scheduled by September 29 in universities and CEGEPs in the province as part of the Quebec general elections. Joined by The dutythe Chief Electoral Officer of Quebec (DGEQ) indicated, however, that at the end of the afternoon, a dozen universities and CEGEPs had contacted him “to cancel the day of voting” on their campuses.
This situation is explained by the one-day strike organized on Friday by 146,000 students and 15,000 workers from across the province as part of the international Fridays for Future movement, which is calling for concrete political actions in the fight against the changes climatic.
Most of the establishments that closed their polling stations on Friday are located in the greater Montreal area. These include the Collège de Maisonneuve; the Lanaudière campus of UQAM, in Terrebonne; and two vocational training centers located respectively in Laval and Longueuil. Elsewhere in the province, polling stations on the Quebec campus of UQTR and the Center collégial de Mont-Laurier were also closed.
“This list may grow if other establishments decide to close their doors during the day”, specifies by email a spokesperson for the DGEQ, Dany Lapointe, while adding that he does not know the exact number of polling stations closed today. today. “Also, our voting teams will respect the picket lines. Thus, the polling stations in certain establishments could be temporarily closed, ”he adds.
The DGEQ also specifies that students who wish to do so have the possibility of voting today “in any office of the returning officer” if it is impossible for them to access their campus.
A political mobilization
In the 2018 general election, 43,634 students exercised their right to vote in a Quebec post-secondary institution, compared to 54,670 in 2014, according to data provided by the DGEQ to the To have to. A downward trend that several participants in the climate march on Friday hope to see reversed this year.
“Me, I find that it encourages young people to get up and go to vote”, launches in particular Alexandre Gervais, student in urban planning at UQAM, about this mobilization. He also went to vote Friday morning between the walls of the establishment in the city center of the metropolis. However, there were few students there during the passage of the To have to at the end of the morning. Ditto at the Cégep du Vieux Montréal, where, however, increased traffic was expected at the end of the march, the polling station closing at 8 p.m.
“I think that the people who want to shout out their convictions are also those who are going to vote or who have gone to vote,” said Mathilde, a UQAM student who preferred to keep her last name silent. . And “perhaps others, seeing people mobilize like that, will invite them to vote”.