French right-wing presidential candidate Valérie Pécresse has been mocked after a dog was reportedly listed as a party member.
According to an investigation by the French newspaper Libération, the dog allegedly named Douglas, which lives in Nice on the Côte d’Azur, was signed up to vote in the primary race in which Ms Pécresse was chosen as the candidate for Les Républicains in the upcoming elections.
The report referred to Douglas as a “discreet party activist,” reported The Guardian.
The report said that he had paid €30 online in November and received a membership card and the right to vote in the primary.
The newspaper said that Douglas’s owner had confirmed that he had signed up the animal with his own contact details “to see if it was possible”.
The revelation was a part of a broader investigation by the newspaper on the right-wing party’s membership roll, reported Politico Europe.
It alleged fraudulent practices were conducted to artificially inflating the number of members of Les Républicains.
The report added that the party’s membership list also included people who do not exist, a number of Chinese immigrants some of whom were not fluent in French and claimed they had joined the party at the request of community leaders.
The investigation also found that some people on the party’s membership list appeared to be dead.
Since the publication of the report, Ms Pécresse has been ridiculed by political opponents.
Her opponent and far-right candidate Éric Zemmour’s supporters took to social media to mock her with the #Douglasgate trending on Paris Twitter.
In a statement Mr Zemmour said on Twitter his new Reconquête party was the first to officially allow pets to join as supporters, “but they aren’t allowed to vote”.
Ms Pécresse responded to the backlash and said that she has become “the woman to be shot” since the beginning of January, reported RFI.
“Stooping so low isn’t worthy of [being mentioned] during a presidential campaign. It’s not serious,” she was quoted as saying.
“It could be a hoax,” she added, “it could happen, but it doesn’t call into question the sincerity of the vote.”
Recent polls show that incumbent president Emmanuel Macron is leading in the first-round voting followed by far-right candidates Marine Le Pen and Mr Zemmour.
The two-round French presidential elections are scheduled for 10 and 24 April.
