{"id":1508,"date":"2013-11-20T17:24:00","date_gmt":"2013-11-20T17:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rf.podcastfixit.com\/index.php\/2013\/11\/20\/opponents-wont-challenge-demers\/"},"modified":"2015-06-01T19:41:28","modified_gmt":"2015-06-01T19:41:28","slug":"opponents-wont-challenge-demers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newscoverage.org\/index.php\/2013\/11\/20\/opponents-wont-challenge-demers\/","title":{"rendered":"Opponents won\u2019t challenge Demers\u2019 eligibility"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Robert Frank<\/b>
\nwww.thesuburban.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite all the pre-election bluster about Marc Demers not having lived in Laval long enough to be eligible to run for mayor, none of the leading candidates for mayor has opted to contest his election.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s up to Elections Quebec to decide,\u201d runner-up Jean-Claude Gob\u00e9 said in a statement. \u201cFor my part, I plan to refrain from opposing it. Laval voted knowing full well what they were doing, and I will therefore respect their democratic choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if it were to find that Demers ran when he was ineligible to do so, the most severe sanction that the Director General of Elections could impose would be a $2,000 fine, Elections Quebec spokesman Carl Charest told The Suburban.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t remove someone from office,\u201d he explained. \u201cTo do so, someone who was eligible to vote in the latest Laval election would have to petition Quebec Superior Court to disqualify the ineligible individual from office.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another mayoral runner-up, Robert Bordeleau, told The Suburban<\/i> in an interview that \u201cit\u2019s unfair to expect individual citizens to pay as much as $20,000 in legal fees to challenge that illegal candidacy. I continue to consider [Demers\u2019] election illegal. The Municipal Affairs Ministry and Elections Quebec ought to be doing that job\u2014and ought to do so before the election takes place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we accept the verdict of the voters, we continue to say that they were misinformed about Demers\u2019 eligibility,\u201d Bordeleau said, indicating that he will not be contesting the election at this time.<\/p>\n

He added that another member of his Parti au Service du Citoyen,<\/i> Normand Vall\u00e9e, has brought a complaint before Elections Quebec, as well as another, private Laval resident.<\/p>\n

Charest subsequently acknowledged that Elections Quebec has received at least one complaint and that it has opened an investigation. He could not specify how long it would take to complete.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach case is different,\u201d Charest said, \u201cand there is no time limit for the investigation of complaints.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if Demers loses, he wins<\/b><\/p>\n

Independent mayoral candidate Jacques Foucher also threw in the towel on challenging the election.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re clearly moving from a Liberal controlled [civic administration] to Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois control,\u201d he contended in a statement. \u201cI would have preferred a more open, more democratic government. Clearly, my fellow citizens have decided to follow the same path as they have since Laval was formed, in the hope that, this time, the outcome will be different. It\u2019s an illusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many people, myself included, the first reaction is to welcome a challenge to the new mayor find him ineligible for office,\u201d Foucher continued. \u201cOn reflection, I realized that it\u2019s not in the best interest of our city to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted with irony that\u2014if by-election were to be called\u2014Demers would by then be eligible to run.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll we\u2019d end up doing would be wasting money on partisan squabbles,\u201d Foucher lamented. <\/p>\n

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By Robert Frank www.thesuburban.com Despite all the pre-election bluster about Marc Demers not having lived in Laval long enough to be eligible to run for mayor, none of the leading candidates for mayor has opted to contest his election. \u201cIt\u2019s up to Elections Quebec to decide,\u201d runner-up Jean-Claude Gob\u00e9 said in a statement. \u201cFor my<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nOpponents won\u2019t challenge Demers\u2019 eligibility - Newscoverage<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/newscoverage.org\/index.php\/2013\/11\/20\/opponents-wont-challenge-demers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Opponents won\u2019t challenge Demers\u2019 eligibility - 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