Dead or fictitious members (including a dog) would have voted in the LR primary

“Bogus election”. This is how the newspaper Release qualifies the Primary LR which nominated Valérie Pécresse as a candidate for the right in the 2022 presidential election. The journalists of the national daily investigated the file of members of the right-wing party who were able to participate in this election on December 4. They claim to have discovered “fraudulent maneuvers” aimed at inflating the electorate.

Indeed, while the party had less than 80,000 inserts at the end of September, it recorded 148,862 in mid-November, reports the newspaper. Except that among these new members able to vote, the journalists of Release ensure that “some do not exist or no longer exist”, that is to say that we find fictitious people, dead people.

Douglas the Voting Dog

In the files, Liberation spotted a dog (Douglas, that’s his first name) registered in the Paca region by his pro-Ciotti owner, and “at least three people supposed to have joined the party after their death”. Others “are hard pressed to explain why and how they joined the party” and some “have little interest in the ideas of LR and its candidate”, having “followed the instructions” or “done a service to a acquaintance, which has sometimes settled their membership”, affirms Release.

The daily also affirms that in Ile-de-France, the region of Valérie Pécresse, “a certain number of members do not have French nationality, and therefore do not have the right to vote”, and that “sometimes they do not speak not French, or barely”. These would include members of the Chinese community, recruited face-to-face or on the social network WeChat, in particular by leaders of community associations. These practices, which “are not all illegal”, represent “at least several hundred voters”, according to the daily.

Complaint and indignation among Republicans

The daily does not question the victory of the candidate, but the journalists “question the security and the sincerity of the ballot”. Denouncing an “attempt to destabilize”, Les Républicains said in a press release that they were going to file a complaint against the daily. “The Congress of Republicans has been exemplary in every way, both in its organization and in its mobilization”, assured the party, denouncing “approximations, innuendos and unfounded allegations” aimed “clearly at delegitimizing the candidate”. .

For LR there is “a dubious confusion between a supposed” member file “and the electoral list of the ballot”. “Following the strict application of our security criteria, more than 9,000 members have been excluded from the electorate” after verification, adds the press release. The first round of voting was tight, Eric Ciotti ahead of Valérie Pécresse by 665 votes. Behind, Michel Barnier was 1,209 votes, and Xavier Bertrand 2,966 from the president of Ile-de-France.