legislative and presidential elections of france

I'm going to talk about...

The Presidential elections of

2007 in France

First of all...

WHY DID THEY MAKE

ELECTIONS?

The former French President ended its term of 7 years.

Let's make elections!

Let's find out how this election thing actually works.

I promise. It's not that boring.

Let's say we're watching

a horse race.

I bet some of you are thinking about the

FIRST PASTTHE

POST SYSTEM...

...You're damn right !

50% + 1

The first candidate who reaches an absolute majority is elected.

Easy.

Otherwise, what HAPPENS?!

Let's say we have...

5 candidates.A, B, D, E and F

(don't ask where C is gone!)

No absolute majority is reached (no candidate has attained 50% +1).

As we need an absolute majority, according to the French Constitution of 1958...

Let's do a second round with the 2 best candidates! (exciting!)

B and E are admitted in the second round, gathering the greatest

amount of votes.

E has an absolute majority, and is therefore elected!

Good. What others rules apply?

1. The candidate must be a French citizen.

2. Be 23 year old.

3. Have the right to vote.4.Be nomited by 500 persons (such as mayors, Members of Parliament, ...)

5. Have no criminal record.

Let's now talk about another important event that took place in 2007.

The National Assembly elections!

... That the National Assembly is:

Okay. How are the National Assembly members elected?

It's basically the same as for the presidential elections with a

First-Past-The-Post system.

BUT... It's a bit more complicated.

Don't worry.

I will explain you how it works.

First of all. The France is divided into several electoral districts

called « circonscriptions éléctorales »

There are 577 electoral districts. 555 belonging to metropolitan France and 22 of oversea territories.

I'm the one!!!

Each person within an electoral

district is entitled to vote for 1 deputy.

If the deputy has an absolute majority and at least

25% of the voters, he is then elected.

Otherwise, that's easy:

Those who gathered at least 12.5% of the votes are allowed into a

second round where a plurality is applied to elect the deputy.

All this leads to...

The END!

Thanks :)