Marseille, Saturday June 27, rue Beauvau, close to the Old Port. In the permanence of Sophie Camard, candidate of the Printemps marseillais – this left coalition which competes with the right in the city – is held behind closed doors a very private meeting. Since midnight Friday, the campaign is closed and poster collages are prohibited. But the activists who dream so much of electing environmentalist Michèle Rubirola as mayor have not gone to the beach: they are undergoing training “Anti-fraud”.
Scalded by the irregularities noted during the first round, the candidate of Printemps Marseille in the first sector – two districts which group together the poor city center and certain upscale districts of the coast – organized this informal training for a dozen office presidents vote. It is the last meeting of a long series: “200 assessors have already been briefed”, explains “Stéphane Dubois”, a Marseille official who introduces himself to his little class and refuses to decline his identity. “I work at the Aix-Marseille metropolis, he confides. I play big. My boss is Martine Vassal “, who is none other than candidate LR.
On March 15, the first round of the Marseille election was punctuated by incidents in all the boroughs: “The presidents supposed to be neutral with in their pocket a poster of Martine Vassal, invalid proxies accepted, counting organized with members of the offices because we had” forgotten” to solicit tellers … “, lists the anonymous trainer for this three-hour session. Without forgetting the physical incidents: “When I arrived at the entrance to a school group, the door had been closed by security guards. Where did we see all this?, he launched to the ten or so voting presidents (Greens, Insubmissive, Communists, “citizens”) gathered around him. Not even in a Netflix series! “
“Don’t let anything go by!” “
It was the presidents of polling stations who demanded this express training. Their role is strategic in this election where the opposition chairs offices, a first since the post-war period. “The only power that the president does not have to share is the police power: only you can bring the police into an office”, remind him ” former “.
Leïla Bécard, Public Place candidate in fifteenth position on the list of Sophie Camard (1st and 7th arrondissements), intervenes in turn to distill her practical advice. A management training consultant, who set up a volunteer commission on March 16 ” Risk prevention “ in this 1st sector for the Marseille Spring, distributes a small technical booklet to remind the rules of the good conduct of an election. “Don’t let anything go by!” “, is it written in red. “That such training is necessary is worrying, agrees “Stéphane Dubois”. I don’t think many other cities in France need it. “
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