“Under these exceptional circumstances, it was decided not to open the polling stations for the second ballot,” writes the French embassy in China.
The French in China started voting in the second round of the presidential election on Sunday, but those in Shanghai will again be stripped of their ballots due to the Chinese economic capital’s quarantine. In Shanghai, therefore, French expatriates, like most of the megalopolis’ 25 million residents, have been staying in their homes since the beginning of the month with no prospect of deconfinement.
“Unfortunately, the conditions on the ground have not changed since the first round,” writes the French embassy in China on its website. “In these exceptional circumstances, after being asked for an opinion from the Constitutional Council, it was decided not to open the polling stations for the second round of the presidential elections.”
“The right to vote being taken away from us is hard”
Around 4,800 people are registered on the voter lists of the French consulate in Shanghai. Emma Chateauneuf, who works for a design agency and has lived in this city for the past eight years, finds it hard to live with not being able to fulfill her civic duty, a gesture that would have tied her to her country of origin.
“Voting is very important for all French people, especially when you are abroad, especially now,” she told AFP. “We are already far enough when we are in China, even more so with the restriction and the canceled flights. The right to vote that is being taken from us is hard.”
Some voters “don’t understand that electronic or postal voting couldn’t be organized,” testified Guillaume Rué de Bernadac, vice-president of the Union of French Expatriates in Shanghai.
“The situation is that for most people the presidential election comes shortly after the fact that they cannot leave their homes, the food supply problems and the daily Covid tests,” he admits. In this context, “not voting is the icing on the cake”.
Shanghai is experiencing China’s worst outbreak since the virus was discovered in late 2019, with at least 87 deaths and nearly half a million positive cases since March, official figures show. The other polling stations in mainland China (Canton, Chengdu, Wuhan and Shenyang) opened normally.
Salomé Vincendon with the AFP journalist BFMTV