Seine-Saint-Denis: the mayor of Pré-Saint-Gervais appeals the cancellation of the elections

“The situation is complicated enough for all of us with the pandemic. It is important that the city is managed by the team in place, which knows the problems of Gervaisiens ”, justifies Laurent Baron.

The mayor (PS) of Pré-Saint-Gervais announced this Saturday morning that he was appealing the decision of the Montreuil administrative court, made in early December, to cancel the municipal elections in March. Justice considered that “the invalidation of 42 ballots […] had been likely to alter the sincerity of the ballot ”.

During the campaign, candidate Delphine Debord – at the head of a citizen list supported by rebellious France – had printed ballots lacking the nationality of one of the running mates. The municipality had realized this and had alerted Delphine Debord. She had corrected her mistake and had new newsletters distributed, widely spreading the importance of not using those sent to mailboxes.

But 42 voters still voted with these incomplete ballots, which were invalidated at the time of the count. But Laurent Baron won in the first round, seven small votes allowing him to obtain the absolute majority. The 42 invalidated ballots would therefore have changed the face of the ballot, considered the justice at first instance.

“This decision shows once again that the mayor is not up to the task”

“What happened needs to be observed by the highest court. We must go to the end of the reasoning with the law, ”considers Laurent Baron who,“ with the health crisis ”, can not imagine leaving the hand to the administration, the time for new elections to be organized.

“This decision shows once again that the mayor is not up to the task, criticizes Grégoire Roger, who came second on March 15 with his Alternative Gervaisian list. He is a sore loser and he has a democratic fair play problem. “

For him, as for Delphine Debord, the argument of stability linked to the health crisis does not hold: “The mayor has a tendency to oppose health crisis and democracy, it is dangerous. There is a real democratic crisis, we are in an increasingly authoritarian state. If there had to be new elections, for a maximum of three months, three senior officials would have run the day-to-day business. Elsewhere in France, I have never heard that it had resulted in disasters, ”tackles the elected opposition.