Left primary: voting extended until Sunday 6 p.m. after cyberattack

As soon as opened, immediately hacked. The voting platform for the primary of the social democratic left, which opened at 8 a.m. this morning, is the victim of a cyberattack. As a result, many voters find themselves unable to vote, although this does not hinder the entire process. “The nature of this attack is to maximize the number of simultaneous connections through bots. In fact, this massive and fictitious influx of connections hinders the ability of some voters to vote. However, at no time was the voting platform interrupted and the poll was able to continue without interruption since its opening,” reports a press release from the poll organizing committee.

Alerted to the incident, the Prime Minister mobilized the National Information Systems Security Agency (Anssi). “It is not up to the State to interfere in an internal electoral exercise of political parties. However, ANSSI was contacted by the organizer of the primary of the socialist and democratic left following the incident this morning,” explains Matignon. After identifying the nature of the attack, the public IT security agency seeks to identify its origin and put the organizer of the primary in contact with certified service providers so as to restore the proper functioning of the platform. “As a reminder, the primary is not organized by the State and the technical arrangements, as well as the choice of service providers, are the exclusive responsibility of the organizing political parties,” adds the Prime Minister's entourage.

The organizers of the primary clarified that “the integrity of the recorded votes is not compromised”. They also took all measures “to guarantee the continuity of the vote and allow everyone to exercise their right to vote”. However, in the middle of the afternoon, significant connection difficulties were still observed. The courts were also contacted after this incident, described as “serious” by the political parties involved. “Definitely, nothing good comes out of this primary! These are really nickel-plated feet,” already criticizes a left-wing personality opposed to the process.

In total, 140,282 people registered for this primary and are called to the polls. The online voting, which was to be carried out over two days and was not to close until Saturday evening at 8 p.m., before an announcement of the results shortly before 8:30 p.m., was finally extended until Sunday, 6 p.m.