Organizers announced that the online voting platform e‑votez.net was targeted by a cyberattack beginning Friday morning at 8:00. The assault consisted of a massive influx of simultaneous connections generated by bots, which caused login pages to display errors stating that the maximum connection limit had been reached.
The attack unfolded as roughly 140,000 registered voters prepared to choose among five candidates—Raphaël Glucksmann, Ségolène Royal, Olivier Faure, Jérôme Guedj, and Emmanuel Maurel—with ballots to be cast until Saturday evening. Political groups involved in the primary immediately denounced the incident as an attempt to disrupt the democratic process and filed a complaint with the courts.
Despite the slowdown, the turnout reached nearly 140,000 voters, surpassing the organizers’ expectation of 90,000 participants. Yet this number remained markedly lower than the 2.6 to 2.8 million voters who took part in the 2012 primary that propelled François Hollande to the presidency.
The chronology notes show that the cyberattack occurred on 2026-10-09, the same day organizers lodged a formal complaint with the justice system.
Officials stressed that, although the attack provoked a noticeable slowdown, the voting platform was never interrupted and the vote continued without a cut from its opening. They repeatedly affirmed that the integrity of the recorded votes was not compromised, emphasizing that the fictitious traffic only hindered some voters’ ability to connect.
The chronology notes show that the cyberattack occurred on 2026-10-09, the same day organizers lodged a formal complaint with the justice system. An earlier marker indicates that the first round of the previous presidential primary had concluded on 2024-01-20. Throughout, organizers condemned the act as critical to the democratic exercise, while the unseen attackers were likewise labeled critical in their intent.