It’s a little drama of the presidential election. Two mayors of Gers strongly denounced Friday the invalidation of the votes of their municipalities in the second round of the presidential election, one of them asking the Constitutional Council to “remove the stigma and discredit” thus thrown on these municipalities . The 1,974 votes cast in Eauze, as well as the 894 in Nogaro were canceled, because the delegate magistrate of the Constitutional Council “found, during her visit, that only one member of the polling station was present”, specified the institution on Wednesday in its announcement of the results.
“The Council relies on this false and deleterious report. He says there was only one person per polling station, that’s nonsense! “, declared the mayor of Eauze, Michel Gabas. “When she came, I was at Deportees’ Day for 40 minutes, to lay flowers in front of the memorial tomb. Four deputies were present at the polling station at that time,” he said.
The mayor of Nogaro, Christian Peyret, added: “When the magistrate came, I was in front of the room and as president of the polling station, I was discussing with the inhabitants”. “She told me my place was inside and not in front, in a vehement, impolite tone. I did not think that we would go as far as the invalidation of the ballot, ”he lamented. Stating that he “reported the incident to the prefect on Sunday”, Michel Gabas, mayor of Eauze for fourteen years, wrote to the President of the Constitutional Council, Laurent Fabius.
“Surprise”, “disarray”, “misunderstanding”
In this letter, he expresses “surprise”, “disarray”, “misunderstanding” and invokes on the part of the delegated magistrate “a lack of knowledge of administrative processes”, a “diverted interpretation, obviously tarnishing the reputation and the seriousness of any a town “.
“I ask you to kindly lift the opprobrium and discredit that have befallen our municipality and our administration”, he wrote to the President of the Council, saying that he was aware “that no legal action can be taken”. Of all the municipalities and offices whose votes on Sunday were canceled, Eauze is with 1,974 votes the one that counted the most, according to figures published by the Constitutional Council.
Another cancellation caused a stir in Lourdios-Ichère, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, where Jean Lassalle, an unsuccessful presidential candidate, publicly staged his abstention in the second round without going through the voting booth.