Has the municipal campaign taken an illegal turn? While the second round of the ballot promises to be extremely tight in Marseille - where the favorite Martine Vassal (LR) was outdistanced on March 15 by her left opponent Michèle Rubirola (PS, PCF, EELV, LFI) -, the recent revelations from France 2 and Marianne could have serious consequences for the election.
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Thursday, the chain and the weekly have indeed highlighted the existence of a potentially fraudulent system of proxies, which would have been set up by at least two running mate Martine Vassal. They would have sent text messages to citizens to offer them to " simplify " the procedure, and avoid them going through the police station box - yet mandatory.
"If these facts are proven, they are unacceptable", defends Vassal
A preliminary investigation was opened Friday evening and entrusted to the judicial police, in an attempt to characterize possible "fraudulent maneuvers", as well as for "forgery and use of forgery". " The justice is doing its job, it checks if offenses have been committed and to whom to attribute them, " justified the prosecutor, Dominique Laurens, to AFP.
As part of these investigations, a search took place Saturday morning at Martine Vassal's campaign office, according to AFP. Contacted by Le Figaro , candidate LR did not react at this stage. Questioned Friday, she castigated " Parisians (who) are trying to create a controversy that does not exist here ". Before assuring by press release that " if these facts (were) proven, they (were) unacceptable ".
Rubirola claims to have already found "4,595 incomplete proxies"
His opponents did not fail to express their indignation. Starting with the candidate of Printemps Marseillais, Michèle Rubirola, who split several press releases to demand " transparency in the face of a democratic emergency ". " A citizen control operation " was also launched, to verify the powers of attorney deposited in the premises of the town hall.
Friday, Michèle Rubirola claims to have found " 4595 incomplete powers of attorney ", where " was already missing the date on which the power of attorney was made and the name of the judicial police officer before whom the power of attorney is signed ". " Fearing a defeat, part of the right-wing political staff is preparing a democratic winter in Marseille, " concludes the statement.