The Parti Québécois (PQ) suspects the Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ) of having broken the rules during the by-election held in the riding of Arthabaska last summer.
In a press scrum in Quebec City on Friday, the leader of the PQ, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, addressed the information first shared with Le Journal de Québec.
He stated that he suspected Conservative leader and candidate in Arthabaska, Éric Duhaime, of having significantly underestimated his election expenses.
According to him, Duhaime benefited from a discount on the books he distributed free of charge to voters, and then on the accommodation he rented during the campaign.
However, the electoral law stipulates that no one may “claim or receive a price different from the current price” for goods or services provided to a candidate.
St-Pierre Plamondon confirmed that his party had filed a complaint with Elections Quebec.
“The rule is that each party campaigns with the same budget. If there is a party that does not declare everything, and that spends more than what is allowed, (…) our electoral system will not work,” he said.
For his part, Duhaime maintains he has nothing to reproach himself for. He accused St-Pierre Plamondon in a press scrum of waging a “smear campaign.”
“He wants to go down into the sewers and then do politics of this nature? I find that extraordinarily disappointing of Paul St-Pierre Plamondon,” he said.
“This is not befitting the office of a guy who aspires to be prime minister,” he added.
Duhaime defends himself by stating that he sought the advice of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) before purchasing books, in this case his own biography “Against all odds”.
“We did it following the DGE standards,” he assures.
Then, he explains that he did not pay the full price of a rent displayed online, because “we did not rent the entire building (…) and the person who rented it even continued to live in the accommodation.”
“So, the cost wasn’t the same. That explains the difference in costs.”
Let us recall that on August 11, it was the PQ candidate Alex Boissonneault who won the by-election in Arthabaska after a tough campaign against his closest opponent Éric Duhaime.
He had spared no effort, conducting an active campaign on the ground, hoping to wrest the riding from the Coalition Avenir Québec and enter the National Assembly.
“If the facts are proven, then yes, it’s problematic, but we’ll wait and see what the investigation says,” Liberal leader Charles Milliard said Friday.
Québec solidaire’s parliamentary leader, Ruba Ghazal, also stated that she had taken note of the PQ’s complaint against the PCQ.
“If this is true, I find it extremely, extremely worrying. Duhaime must demonstrate the utmost transparency. The public’s trust in the political class is at stake,” she warned.
While in Drummondville, Premier Christine Fréchette remained cautious: “I will let the Chief Electoral Officer assess the situation. I have no further comments.”
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
