While 26 million inhabitants of the Chinese economic capital are locked up at home, some for more than a week, due to the resurgence of Covid-19, nearly 7,000 French people risk not being able to go to the polls. .
With our correspondent in Beijing, Stephane Lagarde
A few days before the election, two questions arise. Can the four polling stations at the Consulate General of France in Shanghai be open? while all institutions and businesses are closed ? And will voters be able to obtain a derogation to exercise their right of citizenship? ” Nothing is less sure “, estimates Benoit Guided, consul of France in Shanghai. ” We have offered local authorities an exemption system for going to vote. We are discussing it but for the moment we do not have a positive answer. It’s very hard to get “, he adds.
About 4,500 voters are affected. It is a situation of force majeure “, recalled the French ambassador on Wednesday during a videoconference with the French community in China.
Residents of Shenyang, in the northeast of the country also confined, face the same problem. And for now, they are suspended from the duration of the confinement and see no alternative. “Given the current situation, we are not sure of anything… What we find a bit unfortunate is that we cannot vote online. I find it hard to understand why, in 2022, we don’t have a solution to vote for the presidential election online, that would solve all the problems ”says Arthur, a French expatriate who works for a railway equipment manufacturer in Shanghai.
The difficult power of attorney
Unlike legislative elections, the law does not allow online voting for the presidential election, explains Guillaume Mallet, representative of French people living abroad in Shanghai. ” It is at the ballot box or by proxy, there is no other modality. Where I am most disappointed is on the calls that had been made on the possibilities of making a proxy by videoconference with the agent and the person who would receive the power of attorney after identity verification “, he breathes.
No exception either on this point. You have to go to the consulate to file your power of attorney. Hence the frustration of Carole Gabay of the Solidarité Covid association, which gives information to the French on the evolution of the epidemic since it was discovered in China. She has just arrived from abroad, so she is in quarantine and does not know if her family will be able to slip a ballot into the ballot box.“I had planned a power of attorney for my husband to vote for me on Sunday. But if our residence is still confined, he won’t be able to do it. It’s an exercise we want to do to bring us closer to our country. Many of us have not been able to go to France for a long time. Not even being able to participate in a major election is still very frustrating. Prisoners can vote by mail and we cannot,” she testifies.
