The polling stations for the legislative elections opened Monday, October 3 in Quebec, where the right-wing coalition in power should be renewed without difficulty in this French-speaking Canadian province where the question of immigration and that of Quebec identity have been at the heart. debates.
More than 6 million voters are called to the polls to elect the 125 members of the Assembly of Quebec.
Voting began at 9:30 a.m. (3:30 p.m. French time) and ends at 8:00 p.m.
Shortly after the opening in an office installed in a gymnasium in the center of Montreal, the crowd was very low, noted an AFP journalist.
“
Few people vote, so the election results are not true
,” laments Angèle Hebert, 22.
A quarter of voters voted in advance
This voter who went to the polls for the second time in her life said she was saddened to see "
that only half of the population, who can vote, votes
".
According to figures published by Élections Québec, an independent institution, nearly a quarter of voters had chosen to vote in advance (by mail or at dedicated polling stations) – which is a record.
The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), a heterogeneous right-wing nationalist party, led by current Prime Minister François Legault, was credited with nearly 38% of the intention to vote in the latest polls.
Behind, the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ) would cap around 17%, which would be the worst results for the party that ruled Quebec for nearly 15 years before 2018. The other opposition parties have stood still at the exception of the Parti Québécois (PQ), sovereigntist, which grabbed a few points in the polls.
Read also Mathieu Bock-Côté: “The 40 years of the Canadian coup”
Four years ago, the ex-multimillionaire businessman François Legault had succeeded in his bet to impose a "
third way
".
Neither separatist nor federalist, the founder of the airline Air Transat claims a “
business
” approach to politics and nationalist values.
The question of Quebec identity once again agitated the campaign with a party in power which multiplied the sensational declarations.
It would be "
a little suicidal
" to accept more newcomers given the decline of French, said François Legault, who had previously associated violence and immigration.
In the province which suffers from a serious shortage of manpower, for the first time young people, sometimes aged 16, are present in the polling stations to act as scrutineers, even if they are not do not have the right to vote.
The results are expected in the evening.
