When he opened his mail on Wednesday at noon, Bernard, 75, balked. In the envelope dedicated to the professions of faith and ballots of the candidates of the 6th constituency of Var, there was nothing on the candidate of the National Rally. The same for the one of Reconquête! and Lutte ouvrière.
“Do you think that’s normal?”, is surprised by this retired farmer, who could be tempted by the far right if the New Popular Front makes it to the second round. In Toulon, an entire building ended up with all the documents, but not from the right constituency.
The Alpes-Maritimes are not spared from the hiccups at the end of the election campaign. Conversely, some have discovered in their official envelope two professions of faith from the candidate Reconquête! and three from the Rassemblement national. Enough to disorientate voters a little more, already surprised by the dissolution of the National Assembly.
Any irregularities?
As for the Toulouse metropolis, Laure Lavalette (RN) does not believe in isolated cases. “For two days, dozens of Var residents have informed me that the pressure from the RN and/or our ballot is not in the letters sent to residents by the prefecture”alerts the candidate for his succession on social networks, with screenshots in support.
The cause of all this? “A mistake, no doubt”she surmises, while leaving the field open to the conspiracy theory.
According to his feedback, these are “five to six thousand professions of faith” who mysteriously disappeared at the time of mailing, out of the 92,631 voters in the 2nd constituency. That is as many potential “irregularities”. Which led her to demand accountability at the highest levels, before imagining establishing “a bailiff’s report”or even “appeal to the administrative court”.
The prefecture shows its credentials
Contacted, the Var prefecture recognizes “human errors” remaining “at the margin” et “must not be exploited”. In the Alpes-Maritimes, we also insist on the fact that there is no “no desire to favor or disadvantage this or that candidate”.
Candidates for deputy had until last Tuesday to submit their “election material”, counting 10% more documents than the number of registered. The State services then put them in envelopes last weekend. “It’s exhausting assembly line work.slides an old little hand. And the paper is so thin that it’s not easy to handle.”
Rather than students and the unemployed, the task was this time entrusted to active or retired agents and their relatives in order to meet the deadline: 650 people gathered at the Zénith in Toulon, in the Var.
For more than 10 million documents inserted in the 840,000 envelopes destined for the four corners of the department. All under the supervision of the propaganda commission, chaired by Robert Vidal, vice-president of the Toulon judicial court. Commission which “conducted random checks”insists the prefecture.
In 06, the city of Nice was responsible for putting envelopes for the 1st and 3rd constituencies (175,000 voters), mobilizing 250 administrative staff at the Palais des Expositions. More than 600 at the administrative center on the prefecture side which took care of sending official documents for the seven other constituencies. That’s 15 million papers to manage in total.
Exceptions to the rule
Other explanations: some candidates did not submit all of their copies due to lack of time or sufficient financial resources, in both departments. This is the case for the Lutte Ouvrière candidate in the 6th constituency of Var, for example. “Our budgets being limited, we preferred to prioritize the supply of polling stations”says Louis Gueyrard.
Another difficulty encountered previously was the distribution of envelopes by La Poste before the election. And not afterwards, as has already happened. In the Alpes-Maritimes, the distribution rate stood at 75% this Wednesday. It was 67% in Var, a day later. “We are on time”assures the prefecture of 83. One less problem.
There also remains the option of consulting professions of faith online, on the government website. Except that there too, there are hiccups.
By clicking on the profile of Aline Abravanel (supported by Gabriel Attal) in the 7th Maralpine constituency, we came across the presentation of… Gaël Nofri (supported by Christian Estrosi), candidate in the 5th. Before the error is corrected.
