MONTREAL - The first poll following the leaders debate is predicting a PQ minority government after the September 4 elections.
The poll released early Saturday, conducted exclusively for the QMI news Agency, suggests that Pauline Marois’ Parti Quebecois is leading with 33 percent of the vote, followed by the Coalition Avenir Quebec, which is attracting 28 percent, while the Liberals are one point behind at 27 percent.
The Parti Quebecois total remains unchanged since the last poll on August 17, in spite of a series debates watched by about 1.5 million viewers each.
The Liberals and PQ are neck-and-neck in the greater Montreal areal, with both sides attracting 32 percent.
The Liberals have 45 percent support on the island of Montreal, the off-island areas near Montreal support the PQ, which has 39 percent of support, compared to 18 percent for the Liberals.
The CAQ has strong support in the Quebec City region, pulling in 46 percent of respondents.
Seniors aged 65 and over are voting Liberals at the rate of 46 percent, while the PQ has the vote of 35 percent of the youth vote.
Francois Legault was deemed to have performed the best in the debates by 21 percent of respondents, while 15 percent chose Marois and 14 percent said Charest debated the best.
The Quebec Solidaire saw its support rise from six to seven percent following a widely-praised debate performance by leader Francoise David.
The pollsters interviewed 1,929 adult Quebecers between Aug. 22 and 24 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
