Even though the custom dates back to a time now gone, it was not uncommon to vote the dead in Corsica. Anecdotes of this kind abound in the electoral history island, accompanied by a wave of litigation of any kind. But, in the long list of polls undulations of the island, to vote for a death is certainly a first. The administrative court of Bastia comes in effect to validate the election, to say the least, unusual, a municipal councillor while he is… deceased.
The facts date back to last march in the town of Pietra-di-Verde, Haute-Corse), a small village of a hundred inhabitants perched on a rocky promontory facing the east coast of the island. Twenty-two candidates are vying for the first round of the municipal elections. As in all municipalities of less than 1,000 inhabitants, the election is plurinominal. In the evening of 15 march, eleven councillors are therefore designated by the ballot for seats on the council.
posthumous Tribute ?
Until then, nothing extraordinary. Except that, among the eleven chosen ones, is a case of very little importance. One of the candidates has obtained the absolute majority of the votes with a score without call of 57 %. He was naturally proclaimed elected after the election. Incident : this man of 58 years could not be declared elected because of his death on the 6th of march, nine days before the election. His death occurred between the close of nominations and the first round of voting. His death, known to all in this small village, do not, however, prevented him from collecting on his name 91 votes out of the 159 votes cast. A form of posthumous homage of the population ? In any case, the prefect of Haute-Corse was quick to want to restore this situation implausible.
Read also Corse : live Sant’antonino
On 20 march, he was seized by a referral, the administrative court of Bastia, in order to cancel the election of that councillor. Better : the representative of the State has asked the judges to proceed to a second round to be able to the vacant seat in the council. It was without counting the fact that the electoral Code would be particularly stripped in the field. Against all odds, the court has noted in a legal vacuum, basic, de facto, the prefect of the action.
The electoral Code without a voice
In their judgment of 27 July, that The Point has been able to consult, the administrative judges write black on white : “there is no place to cancel the election of that councillor or, therefore, to organize a second round of voting to fill the seat of the latter “. Although he died, aged man finds himself, therefore, to the general surprise, officially elected in the district of Pietra-di-Verde. Explanation ? At the hearing, the magistrates have indicated that no provision in the electoral Code nor any other legislative or regulatory provision is not provided to the office responsible for declaring the results the power to exclude one of the candidates elected on the grounds that he had died before the election. All the more that he has regularly declared his candidacy and that he has obtained the number of votes necessary to be elected in the first round. An episode that will probably remain in the annals of election, where it is now recognised by the courts that a deceased person may be elected if the application has been filed within the rules of the art…
