Patrick Soutif, deputy consul in Luxembourg, is responsible for the smooth organisation of Sunday's presidential election. He has had to find several hundred volunteers to assist in the operation.

One of the specificities of the presidential election is that it requires physical presence to vote?

Patrick Soutif: The electoral code provides for voting at the ballot box or by proxy, which is a specificity of this election. For the legislative elections [which will take place on 12 and 19 June] it will be possible to vote by post, but we are still waiting for confirmation from Paris, via the Internet.

For Sunday's election, voters had to register on the electoral roll...

This was possible until 4 March. The code still provides for a few exceptions. For example, those who have acquired French nationality in the meantime or have arrived in Luxembourg very recently. But these are marginal cases.

How many people are registered to vote?

We estimate that there are about 53,000 French people in Luxembourg. 33,000 are on our registers, but not all of them are registered to vote. Officially, we have just over 28,000 people who are eligible to vote on Sunday. This is an increasing figure compared to previous elections and has swelled in the last few weeks open for registration. In 2017 we had around 27,000 registered and a 66% turnout. We expect the same this year. That is more than 18,000 voters.

17 offices in 2017, 21 in 2022

More registered voters and more potential voters means more offices and more staff to mobilise?

There are indeed the requirements of the electoral code. Each polling station can manage between 1,000 and 1,500 voters. We therefore have 21--there were 17 in 2017--which will all be installed at Luxexpo. A polling station consists of at least four people: a president, a secretary and two assessors. So 84 people. But many more are needed for the reception, for the legal office... So about 120 people from 9 am to 7 pm.

And the counting of votes?

We need even more people. For each counting table, you need at least four people. At the most, there is one counting table per booth, and we have three booths per office. We have 21 offices, so we need 252 people to count the ballots. These people can be the same as those who manned the polling stations, but after having been present from 9am to 7pm it is sometimes a rather heavy task.

There is a possibility of requisitioning people...

It is a possibility that exists if we don’t get the number of people needed for the operation. We hope that this will not be the case.

Are these missions paid for, as is the case in some countries?

No, this is a civic act that contributes to the proper functioning of democracy. But we do we provide catering for the people in the polling stations offices.