Legislative 2022: hiccups prevent some French people living abroad from voting

An electoral card in a polling station in Mont-Saint-Michel, April 10, 2022. © SAMEER AL-DOUMY/AFP

Text by: Pascal Thibaut Follow

3 mins

The legislative elections in France will take place on June 12 and 19.

But the 1.6 million French people living abroad can already vote.

They appoint 11 deputies representing French nationals living abroad in the National Assembly.

For these seats, the first round is held this weekend and online voting has been open since Friday May 27, but the technique has played tricks on voters who were unable to vote.

Advertising

Read more

From our correspondent in Berlin,

To be able to vote online, but remember that voting is not compulsory, French people living abroad must be registered on the consular electoral list.

To do this, they communicate an email address and a mobile number to receive a username and password sent separately by email and SMS and which allow them to connect to the voting portal.

After voting, a code is sent to validate and close the vote.

French people living abroad are the only ones who can vote online to designate their 11 deputies.

This option also exists for these voters for consular elections.

A solution which is explained by the distances for many of these people for voting at the ballot box.

They can also vote by post, but the deadline for registration was the end of March.

The procedure is complex.

Five years ago, a third of postal votes were invalidated.

And to establish a power of attorney, you have to know someone and still go in person to their consulate.

Problems in sending validation codes

Unfortunately, voters since the opening of online voting have not been able to vote.

If access to the voting portal worked, it was sending the validation code that was the problem.

Voters have tried many times without success.

And changing computers didn't solve anything.

The 150 candidates were grabbed by frustrated voters.

A candidate explained that “

 ” and that frustrated voters were about not to vote at all.

The pressure mounted on the administration.

Two full-scale tests in recent months had however concluded without problem.

Yahoo email addresses were the victims of these blocks.

However, they represent some 13% of registrants in California according to an elected official.

Already some candidates have threatened to appeal against these elections.

The leader of France Insoumise Jean-Luc Mélenchon criticized Interior Minister Darmanin on Twitter for " 

 ".

►Also listen: Accents du Monde - French presidential election: the vote of French people abroad in the first round

Towards an increase in participation?

It seems that today these problems are solved.

Since Monday evening, several candidates from the 7th constituency of French people living abroad, the one including Germany, have confirmed that they had received feedback from voters informing them that the problems had disappeared.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris has not confirmed this information.

If voters aren't too frustrated, they still have until 12 p.m. Wednesday June 1 to vote online.

On Monday evening, the turnout was 20% in the 7th constituency which covers Germany, the countries of central and eastern Europe and the Balkans.

A good score compared to an overall turnout of 25% in 2017. Five years ago, internet voting was suspended before the elections due to the risk of cyberattacks.

We will see on the evening of the first round on Sunday whether the return of internet voting for these 11 constituencies after a first in 2012 will have allowed an overall increase in participation.

►Also listen: Vivre Ailleurs - The difficult participation of French expatriates in the presidential election

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_EN

• France

• French legislative 2022

• Germany

• Digital

• New technologies