Quebec poised to elect next government as CAQ eyes 2nd term

François Legault's Coalition Avenir Québec party will once again form a majority government in Quebec, CBC News projects.

This is a breaking news story. A previous version of the story is below.

Polls across the province closed as of 8 p.m. ET and Quebecers will soon find out which party will form their next government. However, some voters will still be allowed to cast their ballots.

Élections Quebec has confirmed that voting is suspended at three locations in Montreal's Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighbourhood, in the city's west end, due to a power outage. Voting there will resume once the power comes back. 

Outages in the city's Hochelaga-Maisonneuve and Rosemont neighbourhoods did not delay the voting process. Staff there used lighting equipment to keep things moving along.

Today's general election is the 43rd in the province's history. 

Heading into this election, the Coalition Avenir Québec held 76 seats at the National Assembly. The Liberal Party of Quebec formed the Official Opposition with 27 seats. Québec Solidaire (QS) and the Parti Québécois had 10 and seven seats, respectively. The Quebec Conservatives had one. 

The CAQ, led by party leader François Legault, is looking to form a second consecutive majority government. Its first mandate was largely defined by its management of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Quebec Liberals, under Dominique Anglade, are looking to bounce back after a devastating loss in 2018. 

Cost of living, health care and immigration are among the issues that dominated the five-week campaign. Throughout the campaign, the CAQ held a commanding lead in the polls with the four other main parties essentially vying for second place.

If you want to cast your ballot before it's too late but are still unsure who to vote for, here's where the parties stand on major issues:

According to Élections Québec, the voter turnout as of 5:30 p.m. was 45 per cent. That is five percentage points more than in 2018 at about the same time. 

This time, a record 1.54 million (24.4 per cent) of the 6.29 million registered voters cast their ballots in advance polls, compared to 18 per cent in the last provincial election.