French Lawmaker Ousted Over Electronic Voting Irregularities in Overseas Constituency

Karim Ben Cheïkh no longer sits in the National Assembly. The Constitutional Council has canceled his election due to "malfunctions" during electronic voting. Karim Ben Cheïkh had been elected in June 2022 as deputy for the 9th constituency of French citizens abroad (Maghreb and West Africa), beating former minister Elisabeth Moreno in the second round (54.07% of the votes against 45.93%). "The rate of delivery to registered voters [...] of telephone messages containing passwords [...] was only 38% (for) voters registered on the consular electoral rolls in Algeria," observed the body in charge of electoral disputes in its decision, concluding that this "malfunction" was "likely to prevent several thousand voters from participating in the vote in the first round".

"I take note of the decision of the Constitutional Council and as of today I no longer exercise my mandate as a deputy," reacted the elected official, also admitting to having "observed, during the legislative elections from May to June 2022, like many compatriots, candidates and candidates, occasional breakdowns of electronic voting" that he had "regretted".

In addition to the Nupes elected official, Éléonore Caroit (Renaissance) elected deputy of the 2nd constituency of French citizens living abroad (Latin America), with 57.42% of the votes against the Nupes Christian Rodriguez (42.58%) also saw her term invalidated by the Constitutional Council for the same reason. The invalidation of these elections consequently opens the way for the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs to organize two new elections.