The Marseille city is once again the scene of electoral controversies.
This Sunday, June 20, 2021 in the morning, while voters from all over France were called to the polls for the first round of regional and departmental elections, several polling stations located in the city of Marseille remained closed for lack of assessors.
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It was the outgoing LR president of Bouches-du-Rhône, Martine Vassal, who sounded the alert in a press release.
"
Unfortunately, it is clear that many of them were not able to open their doors in time (...), for reasons of personnel or material
", she lamented, specifying that some candidates have raised their great difficulties in contacting the city's election service in order to find a solution.
“
While the many volunteer assessors do a wonderful job in the field, despite the complicated context, it is absolutely unacceptable to see this disorganization which will undoubtedly have a real impact on the free choice of voters and will
encourage abstention on occasion. of this first round of the
departmental
ballot
”, also specifies the president of the Aix-Marseille-Provence metropolis, former candidate for mayor of Marseille.
"Shame.
What is such an election worth? "
On Twitter, the leader of France Insoumise and deputy for the 4th district of Bouches-du-Rhône, Jean-Luc Mélenchon also strongly attacked the organization of the poll: “
In Marseille the union of the gôche (sic) more effective in ostracizing LFI than in organizing democracy: 34 polling stations closed! Shame. What is such an election worth?
“, He accused.
The right-wing opposition group in the City Council, “
Un will pour Marseille
”, also denounced “
the amateurism of the Marseille executive
”, indirectly targeting the mayor PS Benoît Payan.
“
This is the first time that citizens going to the polls cannot vote because of the non-opening of their polling station.
In the context of abstention that political analysts foresee, this is an attack on democracy which cannot be taken lightly,
”they wrote in a statement, accusing:“
This is at least a serious fault, at worst, an attempt at electoral tampering
”.
More than forty polling stations did not open on time
According to our information, more than forty polling stations (out of 481), including 7 in the 11th and 12th arrondissements, were closed, or about 10% of the total.
A voter who came to office n ° 1340 told
Le Figaro
: “
It was supposed to open at 8 am, but at 8:38 am, the president of the office was still absent.
There is still no one there at 10:30 am, it is unacceptable
”.
In some areas, the police are said to have traveled to requisition voters and designate them as polling station presidents, as provided for in the Electoral Code.
Read also: Regional and departmental elections 2021: record abstention at midday
"
We were faced with a problem of mobilizing assessors, out of 480 offices, 40 presidents did not come to pick up their satchel on Saturday,
" the general direction of services of the town hall of Marseille told AFP.
In total, according to the town hall, 2% of the city's offices therefore did not open at 8 a.m.
A computer bug also affected election software on Saturday, the municipality also said.
According to our information, in the Marseille-5 canton, polling station n ° 1453 was still closed around noon but opened a few minutes before 12:30 pm.
In addition, in the Marseille-12 canton, offices n ° 751 and n ° 803 were always closed before 1 p.m., for lack of envelopes.
An "infox" according to Printemps Marseillais
While several elected officials denounced throughout the morning the closure of many polling stations in Marseille, the Printemps Marseillais, a movement that brings together all the local left forces since the municipal elections of 2020, denounced
"infox"
in a
press
release . The EELV / PS / PCF / LFI coalition recognizes that the opening of about twenty of the 481 polling stations
"was delayed"
, but that they
"were able to open in the morning, despite rumors spread by political leaders of the opposition ”.
According to the prefecture, at least 34 offices are actually affected.
“We denounce the attitude of the local right on social networks and the media aimed at inflaming a controversy. (...) Anti-democratic, this deleterious practice of certain political leaders could have the consequence of increasing the abstention figures by discouraging voters from going to vote, ”
defends the Printemps Marseillais.
"Elections have already been canceled for less than that"
According to the legal services of the candidates who searched the case law, such an electoral imbroglio would be
"unprecedented"
in France. They believe that these polls are marked by major dysfunctions.
"Elections have already been canceled for less than that"
, explains a lawyer. Appeals will most likely be initiated five days after the final results of the ballot, as provided for in the provisions in force.
Especially since the prefecture would have had the opportunity to set up a special commission on Saturday evening to arm the staff offices after having learned, via the town hall, that several office presidents had not come to collect their equipment from the town hall.
"One is to wonder if all this is simply the fruit of a frightening amateurism or motivated by other shameful reasons"
, gets carried away a member LR.
Other electoral hiccups elsewhere in France
The shortage of assessors was not observed only in Marseille, but also in Saint-Étienne (Loire). The first deputy UDI to the mayor, Gilles Artigues, testified that "
the usual militant assessors were this year in insufficient number
". Thanks to a mobilization by posting and by SMS, about sixty assessors were however recruited, without whom “
we would not have managed to keep all the offices open from 8 am to 8 pm
”. A problem which is likely to be accentuated in the second round, estimates the cabinet of the mayor LR: "
It will be even more complicated (...) to mobilize assessors whose candidates will not be qualified next Sunday
".
Another electoral hiccup finally took place in Cousolre (North). Until noon, the ballots of only six lists were offered to voters, including Éric Dupond-Moretti, the Minister of Justice, who grew up in this city and who is on the LREM list of Hauts-de-France. . Except that, according to
La Voix du Nord
and numerous testimonies on Twitter, the ballots were missing from the union list of the left (PS / PCF / EELV / LFI) led by Karima Delli. “
The Keeper of the Seals should have pointed it out! Not having bulletins until noon is still questioning republican equity ...
", criticizes the person concerned with Le
Figaro
.
According to our information, several regional and departmental elected representatives on Sunday shared their concerns about the disorganization of the elections. “
It's a butcher's shop, a real sabotage. We find envelopes in the fields, stairwells, garbage cans ... We wonder if these dysfunctions will not have deprived 15% to 20% of the voters of the ballot
”, indignant an outgoing president with Le
Figaro
, after consulting several colleagues in different regions.
