Bloc Quebecois concedes Hochelaga, abandons recount

Bloc Quebecois candidate Simon Marchand will try to retake the Hochelaga seat from the NDP this election.

MONTREAL - The Bloc Quebecois conceded victory to Liberal candidate Soraya Martinez Ferrada on Monday in the Montreal riding of Hochelaga, abandoning a judicial recount.

During the first day of recounting ballots in front of a judge, the party came to the conclusion that the gap between the Liberal candidate and the Bloc candidate, Simon Marchand, was too large to overturn the election night result.

After opening boxes with apparently erroneous preliminary results, a small difference in vote totals was observed, but the tendency was not strong enough to close the gap.

On election night, the Liberal candidate was declared victorious by 328 votes ahead of the Bloc candidate.

On Monday, Elections Canada modified the official result, reducing the Liberal lead to 319.

Another judicial recount begins on Tuesday in the riding of Quebec where Liberal Jean-Yves Duclos was re-elected by 325 votes ahead of Bloc candidate Christiane Gagnon.

In both cases, a tribunal okayed the recounts because there were discrepancies between the final result and the total number of votes cast.

This report from the Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 4, 2019.