Presidential candidates will have no votes from Shanghai.
The measures put in place in China to fight against the coronavirus will indeed prevent the French of the most populous city of the country from voting this Sunday for the first round.
Faced with the worst wave of Covid-19 in China since the start of the epidemic, Shanghai has been in total or partial confinement for two weeks.
Under very strict sanitary measures, the 25 million Shanghainese are forced to stay at home.
In this context, "it was decided not to open the polling stations in Shanghai for the first round of the presidential election", indicates the French embassy, arguing "the official impossibility of moving".
Despite “repeated steps”, including “at a high level”, the embassy specifies that it has not been able to obtain from the authorities a derogation for French voters.
Regarding the second round, on April 24, everything will depend on “the evolution of local health standards”.
Nearly 5,000 people concerned
At the end of 2021, Shanghai had more than 7,000 French people registered with the consulate, i.e. more than half of the French community established in mainland China (excluding Hong Kong and Macao).
Some 4,800 people were then registered on the electoral lists of the Chinese economic capital.
Besides Shanghai, other regions of China are subject to more or less strict quarantine measures.
Despite the confinement in Shenyang (north-east), "the polling station will open as planned but local traffic restrictions will apply", specifies the embassy, suggesting that some voters may not be able to perform their civic duty.
The other polling stations in mainland China (Beijing, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan) will open normally.
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