Paris - The French Socialist Party on Monday began trying to
resolve an ugly factional row that grew out of a disputed election
for a new party leader.
A special party committee began examining complaints about the
vote count that resulted in a victory of 42 votes out of 137,000
cast, or a margin of 0.04 per cent, for Lille Mayor Martine Aubry
over former presidential candidate Segolene Royal in Friday's
election.
Since the results were made official early Saturday, several
regional party officials have pointed out problems to party
headquarters, including errors in the transmission of vote counts or
in the counting itself.
Based on the outcome of the commission's work, the party's
national council - which is largely in the hands of Aubry's allies -
will issue a final decision on Tuesday. The commission will then
either name Aubry the party's first-ever female leader or, as Royal
has demanded, call for another round of voting.
In the meantime, the party infighting has grown more tense.
A Royal advisor, Evry Mayor Manuel Valls, has said he would file a
legal complaint for fraud against a Socialist district office in
Lille that, he charged, falsified the results in Aubry's favour.
In response, the head of the Lille regional faction of the
Socialist Party, Gilles Pargneaux, said he would sue Valls for
slander.
Results from several other regions of France have also been called
into question.
Both Royal and Aubry aides have charged that the names of deceased
party members appeared on ballots, that signatures and vote counts
were falsified and that party officials in some regions, such as the
overseas territory of Guadaloupe, simply stuffed the ballot boxes.
The intensity of the dispute has opened the party to harsh
criticism and even mockery, with the left-leaning daily Liberation
using on its title page a play on the party's initials SP, 'Suicidal
Party.'
According to a poll by the Opinionway institute, 71 per cent of
the French and 67 per cent of Socialist Party supporters believe that
the party has been weakened by the quarreling.
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