The legislative victory of Bénédicte Taurine (LFI) in Ariège is canceled. The Constitutional Council delivered its decision on Friday 27 January. Jean-Marc Garnier, candidate of the National Rally, at the origin of the dispute, wins his case.
The election of Bénédicte Taurine (La France insoumise) as deputy for the first constituency of Ariège is cancelled. This decision, rendered by the Constitutional Council, was consulted by our colleagues from franceinfo this Friday. Direct consequence: a partial legislative election will be organized.
The Constitutional Council thus wins the case to Jean-Marc Garnier, who had seized it on June 23. The latter wore the colors of the National Rally (RN). He narrowly missed qualifying for the second round of the last legislative elections.
In the polling stations of the town of Tarascon-sur-Ariège, the ballots in his name were mixed with those of Bérangère Carrié, who was competing for the RN in the other constituency of the department.
“136 ballots in the name of Ms. Carrié were found in the ballot box and rightly counted as invalid by the census commission following the ballot of June 12, 2022“, details the Constitutional Council in its decision.
“However, in the absence of doubt about the intention of at least some of the voters who used them to vote for the candidate supported by the RN in the 1st constituency of Ariège, and while it does not result of the instruction that the use of the litigious ballots resulted from a manoeuvre, the vote of these voters was deprived of useful significance“, add the Sages.
“Therefore (…) given the difference of eight votes between Mr. Garnier and the last qualified candidate for the second round [Anne-Sophie Tribout, investie par la majorité présidentielle]the failure to take into account the irregular ballots in the name of Ms. Carrié in the counting of the votes of Mr. Garnier may have had the effect of modifying the identity of the candidates qualified for the second ballot and thus altered the sincerity of the ballot“, they underline. Hence their decision to cancel the election of Bénédicte Taurine.
(Written with AFP)
