(Montreal) A petition demanding a reform of the voting system in Quebec, posted on the National Assembly website, has received more than 10,000 signatures since October 3.
The petition, launched by the New Democracy Movement and sponsored by PQ MP Pascal Bérubé, had collected more than 12,000 signatures as of Sunday morning. This is the petition with the most signatures among those currently open on the National Assembly website – its closest pursuer has received around 2,000 supports.
The document requests that the first-past-the-post voting system currently in force be replaced by a mixed proportional voting system, which “would allow a fairer representation of the diversity of opinions, values and convictions expressed by the Quebec population,” according to the instigators of the petition.
“This is only the beginning, let’s continue the fight, and we hope that this beginning will give momentum,” said Jean-Pierre Charbonneau, president of the New Democracy Movement and former president of the National Assembly, in an interview.
“What I want citizens to know is that they can join this movement,” he added, stressing that it is possible to sign the petition until 4 December.
Mr. Charbonneau indicates that the petition aims to ask the Legault government to keep its 2018 promise concerning the reform of the voting system, but also to show that the quality of democracy interests Quebecers.
“People consider that the electoral result of last year was not fair, when with less than 41% of the vote, we had 72% of the deputies [de la Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ)], says Mr. Charbonneau. This is not acceptable, this is not fair, this is not equitable. This is not true representative democracy. »
He believes that the current voting method creates an “imbalance” in the National Assembly, while for a similar percentage of votes, Québec solidaire (QS), the Parti québécois (PQ) and the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ) have had a very different number of deputies. With 15.43% of the votes, QS obtained 11 deputies, with 14.61% of the votes, the PQ had three deputies, and with 14.37% of the votes, the PLQ had 21 deputies, according to data from Quebec elections.
The Conservative Party of Quebec, for its part, obtained 12.91% of the votes, but no MPs in the National Assembly.
This petition is circulating as QS MP Sol Zanetti asked Prime Minister François Legault to renew his commitment to reforming the voting system.
Mr. Zanetti presented to the National Assembly, on October 5, a bill aimed at establishing a new voting method more representative of the will of voters.
The member for Jean-Lesage asks the CAQ government to call its bill before Christmas, so that it can be studied in parliamentary committee.
With information from Frédéric Lacroix-Couture