The Sages have rendered their decision on the dispute concerning the campaign account of Annick Girardin, elected senator in September 2023 in the constituency of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon. In a decision rendered on September 13, 2024, the Constitutional Council declared the parliamentarian ineligible for a period of one year. She is “declared to have automatically resigned from her mandate”. Elected under the Cap sur l’Avenir label, she sits within the RDSE group (Democratic Social and European Rally).
His campaign account had been rejected by the National Commission for Campaign Accounts and Political Financing, which then referred the matter to the Constitutional Council on February 26.
The rejection was pronounced on the grounds that the account was “not accompanied by bank statements attesting to the transactions carried out by its financial agent”, and above all, that the elected senator “did not justify that the financial agent had carried out all the necessary due diligence for the purpose of obtaining the opening of such an account”, recalls the Constitutional Council.
No expenditure incurred, and no revenue collected, the senator claimed.
Annick Girardin invoked the “particularity of the senatorial election in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon”, we can also read in the document. Her financial agent opened the account on March 21, 2024 (i.e. after the decision of the National Commission for Campaign Accounts). The former Minister of Overseas Territories argued that she “did not incur any expenses or receive any income”. But these circumstances are “have no impact on the assessment of the breach of the obligation” relating to the campaign account, the Constitutional Council ruled. As a reminder, the electorate for senatorial elections in this North American archipelago is limited to 39 people.
In this constituency, the two-round single-member majority vote applies, so the senator’s resignation will result in the seat becoming vacant. A by-election should therefore be organized. Her two opponents have also been singled out by the National Commission for Campaign Accounts, our colleagues at La Première remind us. The Constitutional Council will also rule.
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