All three front-runners in Monday's provincial election protested a decision by Elections Canada to allow Muslim women to cover their faces while they vote.
Liberal Leader Jean Charest requested on Thursday to have the decision reversed that would allow Muslim women to wear their niqab or burqa while casting their ballots.
"I expect the chief electoral officer to assume his responsibilities and make sure that people are properly identified,'' Charest said on Thursday.
Parti Quebecois Leader Andre Boisclair and Action democratique du Quebec Leader Mario Dumont agreed with Charest on the issue.
Boisclair said Elections Quebec has taken the hot-button topic of reasonable accommodation too far.
"I don't see why there are double standards,'' Boisclair said while campaigning.
"They have to identify themselves to have their photo taken on their driver's license or on their health insurance card; it should be the same thing for voting."
Elections Quebec said Muslim women will be allowed to wear the niqab, which leaves only a woman's eyes visible, if they sign a sworn statement attesting to their identity, show two pieces of identification and are accompanied by someone who can vouch for their identity.
Election officials said reasonable accommodation is not the issue in this case.
"We are not making any reasonable accommodation. We're just applying the electoral law as it is," Nicole Paquette, a spokesperson from Elections Canada, told CTV Montreal.
"That is absolutely nothing new. This has been in the electoral law and has been used at other elections. It is just to make sure everybody who has the right to vote, can vote," Paquette said.
A spokesperson from the Canadian Council on American Muslim Relations said the issue is being blown out of proportion.
"It's never been an issue as far as I know," Sarah Elgazzar told CTV Montreal.
"We're talking about maybe 20, 30 women, 40 tops. This is a really loud story for a very, very small minority."
She added most women who wear the niqab would be willing to show their face to a female verifier if necessary.
"There are lots of solutions, and nobody really asked for it, so I'm surprised as to why it became such a big story," said Elgazzar.
Fueled by numerous contentious situations, Quebec has grappled with the issue of reasonable accommodation for newcomers to the province for months.
Sondos Abdelatif, 19, was given the ultimatum to withdraw from a corrections training session at a Montreal jail or remove her headscarf earlier this month.
In February, an 11-year-old Ottawa girl was ejected from a soccer game in Quebec after she refused to remove her headscarf during the game. The incident garnered international attention after soccer's governing body, FIFA, upheld the ban on headscarves.
The small town of Herouxville drew international attention when it adopted a declaration of "norms'' that tells immigrants how to fit in and forbids face coverings other than on Halloween.
In Montreal, men were banned from pre-natal classes at one Montreal community centre to accommodate Muslim, Sikh and Hindu women.
With a report from CTV's Caroline Van Vlaardingen and files from the Canadian Press.
