Invested by Nupes, the outgoing MP for the first constituency of Ariège, Bénédicte Taurine was re-elected on June 19 with 55.31% of the vote ahead of the candidate of Ensemble!, Anne-Sophie Tribout. Seven months later, this election has just been canceled by the Constitutional Council.
This decision is made following a hiccup during the first round of the legislative elections. On June 12, 2022, in certain offices of the constituency, the ballots of the candidate of the National Rally, Jean-Marc Garnier, had been reversed with those of his colleague RN, candidate for the 2nd constituency of the department. The one who is also the departmental delegate of the party of Jordan Bardella had then decided to file an appeal because at the end of the vote, he had arrived behind Anne-Sophie Tribout, in third position with eight votes.
136 invalid ballots in the name of the other RN candidate
“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. 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 National Rally in the first constituency of Ariège, and while it does not follow from the instruction that the use of the disputed ballots was the result of a maneuver, the vote of these voters was deprived of useful significance”, indicates, in a press release, the Constitutional Council who decided that there would be a new ballot.
“Given the difference of eight votes between Mr. Garnier and the last qualified candidate for the second round, the failure to take into account the irregular ballots in the name of Mrs. Carrié in the counting of the votes may have had the effect of modify the identity of the candidates qualified for the second round of the ballot and thus altered the sincerity of the ballot”, justifies the highest French court.