Parti Québécois will request recount in Montreal-area riding

The Parti Québécois says it’s asking for a recount in a Montreal-area riding that it lost to the Liberals by a narrow margin.

PQ candidate Stephan Fogaing trailed Quebec Liberal candidate Affine Lwalalika by 10 votes in the initial results in the Vachon riding, on Montreal’s south shore.

PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon noted the narrow margin as he spoke to reporters on Tuesday, and said he was eager to see if his party could move from 59 to 60 seats.

The PQ would need 64 seats to form a majority in the Quebec legislature.

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The provincial elections agency said it hadn’t been informed of any judicial recount requests as of 11:50 a.m.

Québec solidaire spokesperson Ruba Ghazal had previously said the party was considering asking for a recount in the Montreal riding of Saint-Henri-Sainte-Anne after initial results suggested the party had lost by 39 votes.

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However, Québec solidaire candidate Guillaume Cliche-Rivard said today that the margin has been revised to 275 votes as he conceded the election to Liberal Benoit Clermont.

Élections Quebec said in an email that election night results are preliminary, and that it’s not unusual for the final tally to be adjusted.

The provincial agency says the returning officer for each riding reviews the vote tally sheets prepared by polling station staff, to ensure the result matches what was reported on election night.

“Adjustments are made when discrepancies arise, which explains the adjustment made to the results in the Saint-Henri—Sainte-Anne riding,” the agency wrote. “In short, errors can occur when results are transmitted by telephone and entered into our system. That’s why everything is verified the next day.”