Green Party officials are outraged with news that one of their candidates will not be allowed to stand for election.
A stream of complaints from students turned down in their attempts to register to vote in the upcoming Quebec election has now expanded to include a candidate whose voter registration application was refused and will consequently not be permitted to stand for election.
Brendan Edge, Green Party candidate for the riding of Chomedey Laval, was recently refused in his attempt to register for the upcoming election in spite of producing a Canadian passport, a work paycheque with his address on it as well as his current lease.
The Plateau-area resident is in his third year of Canadian Studies and History at McGill.
“My family's roots go quite deep in Quebec. My grandmother was born here and my family goes back 400 years,” said Edge, who came to Quebec from Ontario.
Edge reports that the election official told him that he did not have sufficient proof that he was domiciled in Quebec but Edge explained that he has lived here for almost three years, only returning to Ontario for brief vacations.
A representative from the Director General of Elections told CTV Montreal that Edge, or any other candidate refused the right to vote will also not be permitted to run for office.
Candidates must take an oath that they are eligible to vote. The process is based on the honour system but the candidate could also face legal action if he makes a false oath, according to the DGE.
Quebec Green Party chief Alex Tyrrell calls the refusal unfair. “I think that it fits into a larger pattern of harassment by the Director General of Elections who is not letting a lot of students register to vote,” he said.
Tyrrell plans to return to the Mercier riding office with his candidate in attempt to rectify the decision.
“He has every right to vote in this election. we're going to make sure that he is able to exercise this right,” said Tyrrell.
