Administrative court urges annulment of Saint-Fons mayoral win over ballot irregularity

The rapporteur of the Lyon administrative court has advised annulling the recent Saint-Fons mayoral election after finding a procedural flaw on the list of outgoing mayor Christian Duchêne, listed as "divers gauche". The flaw involves the missing indication of Portuguese nationality for one of his co-candidates, which the prefecture warned should exclude those ballots; nevertheless two voting stations counted them, contributing about 7 % of the total vote and boosting Duchêne’s tally to near 28 %.

Hadi Mebarki, who led the LFI list with over 37 % in the first round and secured the mayoralty with nearly 41 % in the runoff, argued the mistake could have been corrected in time. He pointed out that comparable irregularities have already prompted recommendations to overturn LFI wins in Vénissieux (65 000 residents) and Vaulx-en-Velin (53 000). The court is expected to issue a decision on Saint-Fons within the next two to three weeks, and the outcome may establish a precedent for contesting local elections on technical ballot issues.