[EL] French vote-counting dispute

[Kieran Williams]

For French readers, the COCOE's composition and authority is described in this Le Monde article:

http://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2012/11/19/qui-siege-a-la-cocoe-de-l-ump_1792739_823448.html

Kieran Williams
Dept. of Politics & IR
Drake University
Des Moines, IA 50311



________________________________
 From: "Foley, Edward" <foley.33 at osu.edu>
To: Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu>; "law-election at UCI.edu" <law-election at uci.edu> 
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2012 7:32 AM
Subject: [EL] French vote-counting dispute
 

 
The media is reporting this morning that France’s conservative opposition party has become mired in a vote-counting dispute over the selection of the party’s new leader.  
 
What I’m able to gather is that the “electorate” is rather small: about 300,000 party members entitled to vote (of whom only about 60% cast ballots), with the current count separating the two candidates by about 200 votes or so.  Both sides apparently claim “irregularities” with some news stories referring  to allegations of “fraud”.  
 
Most interestingly (from my perspective), there is apparently a “commission” with jurisdiction to supervise the vote-counting and resolve the dispute.  Some news stories describe the commission as “independent,” but this Wall Street Journal report describes it as a “party commission”:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323353204578128571621869016.html 
 
I’m curious to learn more about the status and composition of this commission—and whether this dispute will serve as a test of the ability to a commission to handle a dispute of this nature.  (For several years now, I have thought that France might be the most interesting and relevant comparison to the United States in terms of institutions and procedures to handle vote-counting disputes, because it has more of a presidential system than the English-speaking parliamentary systems with which the U.S. is often compared—Canada, Australia, Britain, etc.)
 
Do any members of this listserv have particular knowledge of French election law and could address the nature of the commission that has jurisdiction over this particular intra-party electoral dispute? 
 
Thanks, Ned
 
 
Edward B. Foley
Director, Election Law @ Moritz
Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer Professor for the Administration of Justice and the Rule of Law
 
The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law
(614) 292-4288; foley.33 at osu.edu
Website: www.electionlaw.osu.edu 
 
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