The Les Républicains party congress is officially launched since Wednesday, December 1 at 8 a.m. Nearly 140,000 members are called upon to nominate the candidate of the Republican right for the presidential election from among five contenders: Michel Barnier, Xavier Bertrand, Eric Ciotti, Valérie Pécresse and Philippe Juvin. This congress therefore looks like an internal primary that does not speak its name, and the operation is very different from the open primary of 2016.
Who votes?
Only party members who were up to date with the 30 euros contribution 15 days ago can vote via the Internet. They are a total of 140,000 people. The activists concerned have received codes to access the online voting platform. Those who are not comfortable with the web keep the possibility of going physically to the premises of the federations which provide computers.
There will therefore be no queue this year as in 2016. At the time, it was enough to pay two euros and sign a “charter of values” to participate, and vote in physical polling stations. There had been more than 4 million voters. It should be noted that despite the party’s reminders, 9,000 members have not provided the telephone number essential to access the platform, they are deprived of a vote.
Wednesday, December 1, at midday, participation reached 25.4%, according to the party.
How does the ballot take place?
He It is a two-round majority ballot, with electronic voting. The first of two rounds started Wednesday December 1 at 8 a.m. and is scheduled to end Thursday December 2 at 2 p.m. The second round will take place from Friday December 3 at 8 a.m. to Saturday December 4 at 2 p.m.
To win, a candidate must have more than 50% of the votes. There will be no debate between two rounds, only a few hours for the unsuccessful candidates to rally, if they wish, to another. A press conference will follow at each round. The candidates are silenced until the results are announced on Thursday. They will have to withdraw again Thursday at 11.59pm, until the name of the winner is revealed on Saturday. The final result will be announced on Saturday December 4 around 2:30 p.m.
✅ The vote for the first round of #LRCongress is open until tomorrow 2:00 p.m.
️ To vote, go to https://t.co/gOTNSbDGuh.
Have your username and membership number ready. pic.twitter.com/9lQCiqO90n– Republicans (@lesRepublicains) December 1, 2021
The winner will hold a big meeting on December 11 at Porte de Versailles, with 5,000 people hoped by the party to “launch the mobilization” around the candidate.
How is the vote secure?
The Republican party has chosen the platform Neovote for this electronic vote, the same company as for the primary of the ecologists two months ago. Voting is almost as secure as paying online, the party assures us. “Each voter must provide a mobile number, an email address and a postal address to be able to vote”, explains LR president Christian Jacob who promises “we took all the necessary precautions”.
The congress being closed, and each one having to join LR to vote, the risks that external voters come to distort the result seems reduced. In addition, the teams of the various candidates assure Franceinfo that there will be no contesting of the results. Even if the scores are tight: this is what is likely to happen with five people in the running.