Bloc Québécois to challenge Terrebonne election result in court
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said Thursday the party plans to launch a legal challenge after losing the federal riding of Terrebonne by a single vote.
Blanchet said Friday the party wants a court order to run the vote again because a mail-in vote from a Bloc supporter was returned to sender.
Elections Canada admitted this week that a misprint on an envelope used to mail a special ballot from Terrebonne led to one Bloc voter’s mail-in ballot being returned to her.
Despite the error, Elections Canada said Wednesday the result of the judicial recount in the riding was final. However Blanchet said the party will contest the result in Quebec’s Superior Court.
“Elections Canada, as an institution, does not have the jurisdiction to itself order a do-over of the election. But it has admitted the error raised by the citizen,” Blanchet told reporters in French, saying a judge would need to make such an order.
The party said it will file its court application in the coming days.
The Liberals initially won the riding but it flipped to the Bloc after a validation process that checks the addition on the counted ballots. A judicial recount completed on May 10 however concluded the Liberals had won the riding by one vote.
“The situation is quite clear. The judge has established that the Bloc Québécois would have lost the riding by one vote. The vote appeared in the hands of a citizen in a very clear fashion,” Blanchet said.
“In that situation, the law requires the election to be done all over again. This is what we expect.”
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