Montreal, November 10, 2015 – The Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) is questioning the 23% voter turnout in both the Fabre and St-Henri-Ste-Anne provincial by-elections held yesterday as registered at the Directeur général des élections du Québec.
If the Couillard government considers a 23% voter turnout credible for a provincial by-election then he is also declaring the legitimacy of the English school board elections held last fall. Moreover, the electoral turnout in both of these provincial ridings is equal to the turnout at the English Montreal School Board in November 2014.
“The Minister is set to deposit a draft bill tomorrow in the National Assembly that will suspend school board by-elections including the one at the English Montreal school board that has not only already begun, his ministry in fact approved it. Is it because this by-election is being held in an English language school board where there are three registered candidates? We suspect that the Minister does not want the English-speaking community to mobilize and have a healthy voter turnout,” said QESBA President Jennifer Maccarone.
“We maintain and will always maintain the importance of democratically elected school boards for our minority community, this is a constitutional right that we will defend. The electoral period has already begun at the EMSB give the community their voice, and their constitutional rights,” concluded Mrs. Maccarone.
QESBA is the voice of English public education in Quebec.