Quebec PM-elect pulled from stage after gun threat

MONTREAL, Canada – Quebec’s next prime minister Pauline Marois was pulled offstage by bodyguards during her victory speech late Tuesday (Wednesday, Manila time) after an apparent gun threat.

Television footage showed a man with a rifle being arrested near the concert hall in Montreal, the capital of the French-speaking province, which held parliamentary elections on Tuesday.

Police confirmed that an individual had been arrested and said two people were wounded in the incident, without providing further details.

Marois’s separatist Parti Quebecois was projected to have won the poll, ousting Premier Jean Charest and his Liberal party following months of corruption allegations and student demonstrations over a planned tuition hike.

Marois, 63, is thus poised to become the province’s first-ever woman premier.

She heads a party favoring independence from Canada, but is not expected to push for secession in the near future, as voters seemed more intent on ousting the unpopular Liberals than pursuing independence.

The incident Tuesday night occurred after Marois said that “the future of Quebec is to be a sovereign country.”

Marois later returned to the podium to quickly conclude her speech. – Agence France-Presse