QUEBEC - The Liberal government is once again delaying plans to redraw Quebec's electoral map.

Premier Jean Charest is halting a proposal that would see three sparsely-populated ridings in the Lower St. Laurent disappear to create three ridings in the Montreal suburbs.

The Liberal government is working on a bill that would set out new criteria for defining ridings.

Under current law, ridings must be adjusted after every second election to account for shifts in the population.

That work began in 2007, but the initial proposal by chief electoral officer Marcel Blanchet to redraw the map along population lines as required by law was stymied.

In 2009, then-minister of democratic reform Claude Bechard tabled a proposal to set a minimum number of ridings in each region of the province, ensuring areas seeing significant population decreases would maintain a fixed number of seats.

Critics denounced that proposal, saying it would require constant increases in the number of MNAs serving Quebec.

Huge differences in number of voters per riding

According to law, the number of voters in each riding in Quebec can vary by 25 percent over or under the provincial average (an exception is granted for the very small population in Iles de la Madeleine).

According to a 2007 report by Elections Quebec, there are now dozens of ridings in the province that break or are close to breaking this limit.

Not including Iles de la Madeleine, there are 18 ridings with fewer than 35,000 voters, giving those regions a disproportionately large influence in elections.

Meanwhile 17 ridings have more than 55,000 voters, meaning their ballots just do not count as much as those in rural areas.

More than numbers

Premier Jean Charest says when it comes to drawing up the math, more than arithmetic needs to be taken into account.

"One vote from someone who lives way up in northern Quebec and who by living up in northern Quebec allows us to assert our sovereignty on that territory, to occupy the territory, is something very significant for us all."

Charest has set a deadline of March 15 to find a solution.

He says he is counting on support from all political parties.