The Court of Quebec on Friday rejected the request for a judicial recount filed by the Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ) in the riding of Beauce-Nord, where the Conservative candidate was beaten by 202 votes by that of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) .
Posted at 5:11 p.m.
In her decision, Judge Nathalie Vaillant explains that the PCQ failed to demonstrate that there were errors in the counting of votes on election night, October 3, as claimed by the party.
In fact, the defeated Conservative candidate Olivier Dumais claimed to have seen these errors himself. However, the legal claim was filed by Patrice Raza, the official representative of the party.
Mr. Raza therefore had to file a sworn application on his behalf to accompany his request, which was not done — he instead presented the statements of the people who allegedly noticed the counting errors.
After the CAQ team raised this error, the PCQ submitted a new affidavit from Mr. Dumais, in which he confirmed the accuracy of the information contained in the initial request.
However, the court did not consider this declaration sufficient.
“It does not constitute a statement allowing the Tribunal to conclude that Mr. Dumais has personal knowledge of the facts alleged on the application and that he personally has ‘reason to believe that a deputy returning officer or a returning officer counted or rejected illegally cast ballots or made an inaccurate statement of count,” the judgment reads.
Despite this judicial irregularity, the judge ruled out the need for a second recount.
“It is true that the declarations in support of the representatives’ testimonies sent by email make it possible to highlight certain irregularities that occurred during the counting of the votes,” she wrote.
“However, in light of all the evidence presented, the percentage of votes rejected in the riding (1.10%) compared to the percentage of votes rejected in Quebec (1.35%), the difference in 202 votes that separates the candidates, the Tribunal cannot conclude that a reasonable person placed in the same situation has reasonable grounds to conclude that a judicial recount is necessary on the strength of these isolated events. »
The caquiste candidate and outgoing deputy, Luc Provençal, won with 14,590 votes, against 14,388 for Mr. Dumais. Elections Quebec rejected 372 ballots during the counting.