Montreal, October 22, 2014 – The Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) has discovered that the the Directeur général des élections du Québec (DGEQ) has not to transferred English voters from the French electoral list that have, by law, made the request in writing. QESBA has learned this from candidates that have just received their revised electoral lists.
The English voters’ list has been an issue for our community since the inception of linguistic school boards in 1998. QESBA has been working for over 11-years with successive governments to try and put an end to this issue that hurts our democratic process.
“The Government has a responsibility to ensure that Quebecers can exercise their right to vote on November 2,” said QESBA President David D’Aoust. “We all know that this government has clearly expressed that voter turnout will be an important factor on election day, it is their responsibility to ensure that we have all the tools we need to succeed.”
Electors were advised on the rules governing transferring from the French to the English voters list through a media campaign from the QESBA, the Directeur général des élections du Québec (DGEQ), and from candidates across the province. It now seems that an astounding number of requests were not treated and voters are still listed on the French voters list.
We are calling on the government to take action today to put measures in place that will ensure that no voter is disenfranchised.” Mr. D’Aoust went on to say “we faced similar problems in 1998 and the PQ government of the day introduced and adopted Bill 452 on June 11, 1998 (all completed in one day) to allow voters to vote on election-day by producing two pieces of identification at the poll. The current Liberal government must do the same to ensure every voter has the opportunity to express their democratic right.”
QESBA is the voice of English public education in Québec.
Information: Kim Hamilton
Director of Communications and Special Projects
514-919-3894