French vote in Geneva exhibition center
Numerous French people living in Switzerland cast their ballots for the first round of the presidential elections in Geneva’s Palexpo congress center on Sunday. The urns were accessible from the morning. The voting went smoothly.
the essentials in brief
- Thanks to sophisticated logistics, voters were able to cast their votes quickly.
The French consulate in Geneva expects almost 17,000 votes to be cast. With 15 voting offices, the voting center in Geneva is the second largest in Switzerland after Lausanne. The voting on the Palexpo site is a first. The polling stations used to be located in a barracks in Geneva.
Patrick Lachaussé, the French consul-general in Geneva, said in a message to his country’s voters that the consulate has been working on the unprecedented arrangements for foreign offices for two years. There are a total of 107 polling stations in Switzerland, 20 more than in the last presidential election in 2017.
With 125,000 registered voters, the French community in Geneva is the largest foreign community in France. More than 900 volunteers were involved in the preparations for the election. Polling stations opened at 8 a.m. and closed at 7 p.m.