Left and right denounce in unison the dysfunctions, on the eve of the first round of regional and departmental elections.
The political parties are far from being the only ones: regions, departments and communes deplored Saturday that in "many communes" the official documents of electoral propaganda (professions of faith of the candidates and ballot papers) were not distributed to voters ”who will vote this Sunday.
"Despite the many alerts" sent to the Ministry of the Interior, "the failure of the national public service for elections is unacceptable and can only fuel abstention", warn in a joint statement the communities (the Association of Mayors of France, the Assembly of the Departments of France and Regions of France).
Deeming these documents "all the more essential" as the health crisis of Covid-19 "has greatly reduced the capacity to campaign", they call on the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, to "mobilize exceptional means" to remedy to these failures, especially for the second round on June 27.
"This public service, which was formerly based on the prefectures and La Poste, has been largely privatized but providers do not seem to have any obligation of result," they add.
A "delusional" cast
Gérald Darmanin accused the Adrexo company on Thursday before the Senate of having "particularly badly distributed part of the electoral propaganda", and presented the "apologies" of the government which delegated this distribution to him.
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The first secretary of the PS, Olivier Faure, denounced on Saturday a "delirious distribution by Adrexo".
"It is not enough to apologize or condemn, we must ensure the distribution of the second round in perfect conditions as in any democracy worthy of the name!
He tweeted.
No !
Not "a few" townships but 1 delusional distribution by #ADREXO.
It is not enough to apologize or condemn, we must ensure the distribution of the second round in perfect conditions as in any democracy worthy of the name!
# regionales2021 #departementales https://t.co/6ItN16xAUO
- Olivier Faure (@faureolivier) June 19, 2021
The president of LR, Christian Jacob, warned against "serious dysfunctions (which) threaten good democratic organization" and criticized the government, "alerted for several weeks", for not having reacted.
France rebellious had castigated in a video conference Tuesday "serious failures in the distribution of electoral propaganda." The deputy Adrien Quatennens notably mentioned electoral envelopes put in the trash, or grouped together in a single letterbox, or even envelopes without envelopes, etc. According to him, these dysfunctions concern tens of thousands of voters.