Regional: Parliament postpones the vote to June, 13 and 20, promises the government

The regional elections will take place on June 13 and 20, the government promises.

The Parliament adopted definitively Tuesday evening, by a final vote by show of hands of the Senate, the postponement of the departmental and regional elections, due to the Covid-19 epidemic.

The government has committed to these dates which correspond to three months after those initially chosen, but these do not appear in the text adopted on Tuesday.  

A three-month postponement 

This decision is made in accordance with the recommendation of the former President of the Constitutional Council Jean-Louis Debré, the renewal of the regional and departmental councils, as well as the assemblies of Corsica, Guyana and Martinique.

The bill was the subject of an agreement between deputies and senators in a joint committee and was also approved one last time on Tuesday afternoon by the National Assembly.

"Faced with the crisis, democracy is united," said Senator LR Agnès Canayer.

The text does not set the precise dates of the election, contrary to what the upper house, dominated by the right-wing opposition, would have liked.

But the Minister Delegate in charge of Citizenship Marlène Schiappa reaffirmed in the chamber of the Senate, as announced to the deputies, that the elections "will be tense on June 13 and 20". 

A decree taken to set the dates upon promulgation of the text

The decree convening voters with these dates will be "taken as soon as the law is promulgated", she reiterated. Ms. Schiappa further assured that "there is no automatic review clause".

"If the polls had to be postponed again, which the government does not want, I repeat, it would then be necessary for Parliament to be able to vote a new law," she added.

The text provides that "no later than April 1", the government will submit to Parliament a report, on the basis of "a committee of scientists analysis", "on the state of the Covid-19 epidemic, on the health risks to be taken into account and on the adaptations necessary for the holding of the polls and the electoral campaigns preceding them ".

Two authorized proxies

To facilitate the exercise of the right to vote, each voter can have two proxies, against one usually, as during the second round of municipal elections.

Regarding the electoral campaign, the bill provides for a 20% increase in the spending limit and an extension of the duration of the official campaign to 19 days instead of 12, before the first round.

There will be no “campaign clips” on the public service radio and television channels, contrary to what the Senate had wished, but educational programs on the role of the authorities to be renewed.

At the initiative of the deputies, the setting up of a free telephone number, at the initiative of the candidates, will also be authorized to allow voters to find out about their programs.