MONTREAL—Montreal’s interim mayor became the city’s most recent ex-mayor Tuesday after being arrested and charged with and fraud corruption, resigning even as he insisted that the allegations against him are unfounded.

“Being mayor of Montreal is not something that one can do while defending oneself against accusations of this nature,” said Michael Applebaum. “I’m going to put my energies into my defence and my family.”

The veteran city councillor and former borough mayor in Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce was arrested Monday morning at his home by Quebec’s anti-corruption squad and accused of involvement in a scheme involving two real estate deals that occurred between 2006 and 2011 and “tens of thousands of dollars” in bribes, according to police commissioner Robert Lafreniere.

“I maintain my innocence,” Applebaum said Tuesday in his first comments since the arrest. “I have every intention of continuing to fight like I always have and I want to be clear: I have never taken a penny from anybody.”

Applebaum was released from police custody Monday afternoon and won’t make his first court appearance until Oct. 9.

The charges against a man selected by his council colleagues to guide the city smoothly until the next municipal election in November has come as a kick in the gut to Montrealers and to an entire province that has seen six different mayors charged with corruption-type offences.

But Applebaum’s resignation was also welcomed by the Parti Québécois government in Quebec City and by city councillors who wasted no time in launching the race to elect a replacement mayor who will be able to stay in office until the Nov. 3 vote.

There are some specific markers that have already been laid out by political party leaders to guide fellow councillors in the selection process. Most agree that whomever is chosen must be beyond reproach and above suspicion — able not only to promise but to prove with all available evidence that they will not be somehow swept up in a police raid over the next five months.

The new standard would appear to involve representing a section of the city that has not been targeted by anti-corruption investigators with a search warrant — almost certain proof that there may be some indication of wrongdoing in the near or distant past.

The next mayor would also have to make the same promises that Applebaum made not to use the crisis post as a springboard either to help their political party or themselves secure the mayor’s seat in a race that already has five declared candidates.