Jean Lassalle stood in the French presidential election on a ruralist platform, but was knocked out in the first round, receiving 3.13 percent of the vote.

When the time came to vote in the second round – choosing between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen – he opted to abstain.

However, instead of simply staying at home he went along to the polling station in his home village of Lourdios-Ichère, close to the Spanish border, and filmed a short video stating that he was not voting – ending him with slipping his ballot paper into his pocket rather than putting it in the ballot box.

Unfortunately this contravenes France’s strict electoral laws, which prohibit “the dissemination of electoral propaganda messages” on either polling day or the day before.

France’s Constitutional Council decided that he had broken this rule and also “undermined the respect due to the dignity of the electoral operations in which he participated as a candidate in the first round”.

The Council has therefore annulled all the votes cast in Lourdios-Ichère.

Lassalle also faces possible criminal charges for breaking election law.

He has justified his actions by saying there were no voters in the polling station when he filmed his video, but has promised an apology to the villagers’ whose votes have been cancelled.

Although the results of the presidential election were formally announced by the Interior Ministry in the early hours of Monday, the Constitutional Council then reviews the election, takes reports for its delegates at polling stations and deals with any complaints and disputes over voting.

It will then publish a revised voting total – minus the votes of the villagers of Lourdois-Ichère and any other polling station where irregularities have occurred.

With Macron winning by 58.55 percent to Le Pen’s 41.45 percent, the votes of the 136 inhabitants of Lourdios-Ichère are unlikely to affect the overall result.