“Betrayed” by the results of the last elections, demonstrators will demand a change in the voting system before the National Assembly on 29th November next.
“Instead of being happy to have chosen leaders who look like us, we find ourselves with a lump in our stomachs and a feeling of despair, lamented at a press conference Maël Ferland-Paquette, spokesperson for Citizen Mobilization for a reform of the ballot, which organizes the protest. On October 3, I felt betrayed. The event will be held at noon in Quebec City, the opening day of the parliamentary session.
The undergraduate student association of the Faculty of Philosophy at Laval University has also voted for a strike day on November 29. The current voting system “only reinforces a loss of diversity of points of view in the National Assembly and a distortion between the popular vote and the number of seats”, underlined Jeanne Magnan-Lapointe, member of the executive of association. Other student groups could follow suit.
On October 4, the day after the elections, Prime Minister François Legault said he did not want to reopen the debate on the voting system. In 2018, the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) promised such a reform if elected.
Bill 39, which proposed the establishment of a compensatory mixed voting system, was tabled in September 2019, but the government has given up on adopting it.
The current democratic system in Quebec is “broken”, argued Jean-Benoît Ratté, representative of the New Democracy Movement. “The problem is that the only party that is in a position to carry out a reform of the voting system is the same party that has been outrageously advantaged by this broken system. »
The CAQ won 90 ridings, but only 41% of the popular vote. The official opposition, the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ) won 14.4% by universal suffrage, but won 21 seats on October 3 last.
With 15.4% of the popular vote, Québec solidaire elected 11 deputies, while the Parti Québécois (PQ) finds itself with 3 elected members (14.6%). The Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ) will not be represented in the National Assembly, even though it won 12.9% of the vote.
The organizers of the event did not want to come forward regarding the number of people expected next Tuesday. “If there are 200 people who are there, I will be really happy, argued Maël Ferland-Paquette. It will be 200 more people than usual the day after the elections. But I think we’re going to be more than that. »
Other actions aimed at demanding a reform of the voting system will take place soon, assured Mr. Ferland-Paquette.
Further details will follow.