Quebecers head to polls for byelection in Montreal riding of Gouin

Quebecers are voting in a provincial byelection Monday in the Montreal riding of Gouin, where a former student activist running for the left-wing Quebec solidaire party is heavily favoured to win.

Ex-student leader Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois is up against 13 candidates including the Liberals' Jonathan Marleau, a former president of the party's youth wing.

The byelection was called to replace Francoise David, a Quebec solidaire member who resigned her seat in January citing fatigue.

Parti Quebecois leader Jean-Francois Lisee chose not to run a candidate in the riding in order to ensure the seat remained with Quebec solidaire.

The move was part of an ill-fated attempt to create an electoral alliance between the PQ and the other, smaller sovereigntist party.

Lisee wanted to create a pact where the two parties would run one candidate in select ridings in order to increase the chances the Liberals would be booted from office.

The alliance crumbled, however, after members of Quebec solidaire largely rejected the deal at the party's convention earlier in May.

Quebec solidaire, which describes itself as a progressive, sovereigntist party, has no leader.

Instead, the party is represented by one male and one female spokesperson.

Earlier this month, Nadeau-Dubois was named male spokesperson.

He became famous in the province after his stint as spokesman for the student strike movement in 2012.

David first won the riding of Gouin in 2012 and repeated in 2014, winning almost 51 per cent of the vote.

Gouin had long been considered a PQ stronghold before that, with the last Liberal to win Jean-Marie Beauregard in 1973.

The governing Liberals currently have 69 of the 125 seats in the legislature, compared with 29 for the PQ, 20 for the Coalition for Quebec's Future and two for Quebec solidaire.

There are four Independent members.