French people living abroad and registered on the consular electoral lists can vote by Internet for the first round of the legislative elections from this Friday, May 27 at 12 p.m. (Paris time) and until next Wednesday. Kicking off this key ballot, these overseas voters have a total of four voting options: at the ballot box, by proxy, online and by post.
Internet voting is only authorized for French people living outside France, and only for legislative and consular elections. There are 11 constituencies covering the globe, and as many French deputies living abroad since 2012. Internet voting was implemented that year, but not in 2017 for the last legislative elections. It was a question of warding off possible cyberattacks, in the context of suspicions about the 2016 American election which had seen the victory of Donald Trump.
Nearly 150 candidates in total are running this year in these 11 constituencies, but not all of them have filed a profession of faith or a ballot. Thus the ex-LREM deputy M’jid El Guerrab, recently sentenced for an attack, gave up running ten days ago and supports the former minister Elisabeth Moreno, invested by the majority in the constituency of the French of Maghreb and West Africa. It was “too late” for a withdrawal and “there will be no bulletin in my name”, he explained to Agence France-Presse.
On June 4, the first round of voting will take place in French Polynesia and for French people living abroad who vote in embassies and consulates on the American continent. On June 5, it will be the turn of French people living abroad outside the Americas. On June 11, the first round will take place in Guadeloupe, Guyana, Martinique, Saint-Barthélemy, Saint-Martin and Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon. And on June 12, the first round in mainland France, as well as in Mayotte, New Caledonia and Reunion, before a second round a week later.
