The Court of Quebec rejected, on Friday afternoon, the request for a judicial recount made by the Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ) in Beauce-Nord, thereby extinguishing the party’s last hope of entering the National Assembly.
The deputy of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) in Beauce-Nord, Luc Provençal, is ahead by only 202 votes of his closest opponent, the conservative Olivier Dumais. The PCQ argued that the 372 invalid ballots could tip the scales in its favor.
The electoral law indicates that “the candidate who ranked second may, in the event of a majority not exceeding one thousandth of the votes cast, request a judicial recount. In the case of Beauce-Nord, the advance held by the CAQ greatly exceeds one thousandth of the 33,963 votes cast at the ballot box.
The law also states that “a person who has reasonable grounds to believe that a deputy returning officer or returning officer has unlawfully counted or rejected ballots […] may request a judicial recount of the votes. »
Application deemed inadmissible
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 Court to conclude that Mr. Dumais has personal knowledge of the facts alleged on the request”, can we read in the judgment.
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 of 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. »
It was in Beauce-Nord that Éric Duhaime’s troops achieved their best result, winning nearly 43% of the vote. The PCQ also fought a tight battle in Beauce-Sud, where the CAQ only won the riding by 428 votes. The party there, however, did not go to court to request a judicial recount.
With The Canadian Press