Here are some who would have done better to abstain, on this election day. This Sunday afternoon, a group of teenagers tried to steal one of the two ballot boxes from a polling station in Noisy-le-Sec. In their flight, the thieves abandoned the object of their theft in the middle of the street. The ballot box shattered and the dozens of ballots it contained ended up on the sidewalk.
The facts took place around 4:30 p.m., in polling station No. 16. This is in a room at the Jean-Renoir kindergarten, itself located in the city of La Sablière. “It was the office that recorded the record for abstentions in the city last week”, underlines Jean-Paul Lefebvre (Republican and Socialist Left), independent municipal councilor and president of another polling station, this Sunday.
The perpetrators of the theft were talked about for the first time in the morning. “These are undoubtedly teenagers, minors or just adults, who hang around the city and who animate a narcotics spot located a little further”, believes to know Jean-Paul Garnier, the director of cabinet of the mayor Olivier Sarrabeyrouse (PCF ).
The motivations of the intruders remain unclear. “They were a little turbulent, reports Jean-Paul Garnier, who rushed into this office after being warned. They complained that they did not know there were elections. According to some witnesses, they also said they were fed up with the mayor. Since we were elected [NDLR : aux municipales l’an dernier], we bother them. The police spend more time on this point of deal. »
Voting operations interrupted for three quarters of an hour
When leaving, one of the intruders seized the ballot box for the departmental elections. The president of the polling station first tried to prevent him. “He broke a fingernail trying to retain the ballot box,” says Jean-Paul Garnier.
The same man set off in pursuit of the teenagers alongside an administration staff and a voter. The fugitives took the direction of the construction sites along the National 3. The one who held the plastic urn then dropped it. “It shattered and the ballots spilled onto the sidewalk,” continues the mayor’s chief of staff.
The 107 ballots were collected and carefully recounted. “This number corresponded to the attendance list”, indicates Jean-Paul Garnier. Voting operations were interrupted for three quarters of an hour, before resuming under the watchful eye of the police, who were making the findings. “Their presence allowed the ballot to resume smoothly,” greets the chief of staff.
The entire town of Noisy-le-Sec is part of the canton of Bobigny, where the two outgoing departmental councilors, the communists Abdel Sadi and Pascale Labbé, won more than 50% of the votes cast in the first round.
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