MONTREAL – After complaints of possible electoral law violations, Quebec’s Chief Electoral Officer has confirmed that it is investigating the possibility that Parti Quebecois candidates may have broken the law.
The controversy began during the PQ’s campaign to encourage students to vote.
This is the first year that Quebec CEGEP and university students have had the opportunity to vote on campus.
PQ party candidates visited several colleges this week, with photos being shared by students and candidates alike.
Several PQ party candidates, including Bernard Drainville, the minister responsible for democratic institutions and active citizenship, and former student leader Martine Desjardins, were featured in photos shared on social media that showed them on campus talking with students.
The tweets and photos did not pass unnoticed by opposing candidates. Jean-Alex Martin, a Conservative Party of Quebec candidate for Vanier-Les Rivières (Lebourgneuf) asked on Twitter whether what the PQ candidates was doing was legal.
In some of the photos, the candidates appear to be holding what could be party pamphlets.
This would directly contravene Quebec’s Election Act, which states:
“No person may, on the premises of a polling station, use any sign to indicate his political affiliation or support for or opposition to a party or candidate, or engage in any other form of partisan publicity … The building in which the polling station is located and any neighbouring place where the sign or partisan publicity may be seen or heard by the electors are considered to be the premises of the polling station.”
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A spokesperson for Quebec’s Chief Electoral Officer told Global News that the reports were being investigated but would not provide any further details on Wednesday. Drainville’s attache has not yet responded to a request for comment.
This is not the first time during Quebec’s election campaign that social media has caused trouble for party candidates. In March, PQ candidate for the LaFontaine riding, Jean Carrière, resigned over a controversial post on Facebook and Steven Fleurent, a young Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) candidate in Rimouski, learned the hard way that there is no privacy on social media.
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