In the second round of the legislative elections, Sunday June 19, we sometimes came close to theequally : there were thus only three voices apart in the 6e constituency of Haute-Garonne, four in the 8e constituency of Seine-et-Marne or even eleven in the 5e constituency of Loiret. Among the losers of the ten tightest duels, we find the outgoing deputy Cédric Villani or the Minister of Health, Brigitte Bourguignon, who will be forced to resign from the government.
What were the ten most disputed elections?
- Sunday evening, three small voices separated Monique Iborra, candidate for Together! of Fabien Jouvé (Socialist Party-New People’s Ecological and Social Union, Nupes) out of more than 55,000 votes cast in the 6e constituency of Haute-Garonne. The socialist elected seized the Constitutional Council and asked for the cancellation of the ballot. He said in a statement that “the Vote Census Commission, chaired by an independent magistrate, recorded in its minutes a number of anomalies greater than the difference in votes”.
- In the 8e constituency of Seine-et-Marne, the candidate of the presidential majority, Hadrien Ghomi, was four votes ahead of Arnaud Bonnet, Europe Ecologie-Les Verts-Nupes candidate. The latter went to the prefecture of Melun on Monday to examine the minutes, in the event of an appeal against the ballot, as reported The Parisian.
- Anthony Brosse (Together!), beat the candidate of the National Rally (RN) Valentin Manent in the 5e constituency of Loiret with 11 votes. The recount carried out by the Loiret prefecture on Monday following the loser’s appeal confirmed the result of the election.
- In Wallis and Futuna, only 16 votes allowed Mikaele Seo to win the 1re constituency against the various center candidate Mulikihaamea Etuato.
- In Essonne, mathematician Cédric Villani lost 19 votes to Paul Midy, candidate Together!. The outgoing deputy does not intend to appeal, as he announced on Twitter : “Improbable events happen and democratic life is like that. I take note of this result and I extend my Republican congratulations to my opponent in the second round. »
- Olivier Gaston (Nupes) was also beaten with a difference of 19 votes in the 1re constituency of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, by the various right-wing candidate and former president of the local authority, Stéphane Lenormand.
- In Charente, the deputy Together! leaving the 1re constituency, Thomas Mesnier, narrowly saved his post, with 24 votes ahead of the RN candidate René Pilato.
- The Minister of Health and Prevention, Brigitte Bourguignon, bowed to the RN candidate Christine Engrand to 56 votes. The former socialist deputy announced her resignation on Twitter the day after the election.
- Hot on the heels of Nupes candidate Patricia Marc, Macronist MP Fadila Khattabi was re-elected with a 65-vote advantage in the 3e constituency of Côte-d’Or.
- In the constituency of Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Jean-Marc Tellier de la Nupes distanced his opponent from the RN, Bruno Clavet, by 71 votes.
A total of 92 deputies were elected with less than 1,000 votes, including 13 with less than 100 votes.
Can we recount the votes when there is such a small difference?
According to the electoral rules, a candidate is elected when he has a majority of votes, so a discard ballot is enough – in the event of a strict tie, the oldest wins.
Jean-Philippe Derosier, professor of public law at the University of Lille and specialist in constitutional law, explains to the Monde that in France, the recounting of votes is never systematic and must be motivated. “No minimum difference in votes is required to obtain a recount of the votes. The latter must be ordered by the judge, on appeal. In reality, it is not a recount of the ballots, which are destroyed at the end of the counting, but an examination of the minutes, which list the number of votes. Only invalid ballots are kept after the ballot. »
Technically, it is therefore no longer possible at this time to redo a count of each of the ballots, but only to add the totals displayed on the minutes of each polling station or to examine the disputed ballots.
How does an appeal take place?
Before filing an appeal, any voter or candidate may go to the polling stations in their constituency to examine the ballot reports, which detail all the information for a polling station: registered, voters, number of envelopes , cast, blank and invalid ballots, special observations… These documents are accessible for ten days after the announcement of the results. In this case, the applicants have until Wednesday, June 29 at 6 p.m. to file an appeal with the Constitutional Council.
According to the institution’s website, this appeal must be addressed to the prefect (or to the representative of the State in the overseas communities) who forwards it to the Constitutional Council. The applicant must prove his status as a voter or candidate in the constituency, for example by providing a copy of his voter’s card.
Asked by France 3, political scientist Pierre Allorant believes that “the appeals often succeed when there are a hundred votes difference between the two candidates”. At the end of the first round, the former Minister of Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, beaten by 183 votes, lodged an appeal because he considered that his opponent from Nupes had “violated several electoral rules during the campaign”.
What decisions can the Constitutional Council take after filing the appeal?
If the request is admissible, the Constitutional Council examines it and renders a decision which is final. He can :
- reject the challenge and validate the election;
- modify the results and declare another candidate elected. This theoretical case, however, never presented itself in legislative elections, but took place for a senatorial, according to the site of the institution;
- cancel the election (which has taken place 70 times since the start of the Ve Republic). Another ballot is then organized, potentially with new candidates.