elections in france

France is a representative democracy. Public officials in the legislative and executive branches are either elected by the citizens (directly or indirectly), either named by elected officials. In some occasions, the French citizenry is also consulted in referendums.

Generalities

France elects on national level a head of state - the president - and a legislature:

The president is elected for a five year term (previously, seven years) directly by the citizens. The Parliament (Parlement) has two chambers.
The National Assembly (Assemble Nationale) has 577 members, elected for a five year term in single seat-constituencies directly by the citizens.
The Senate (Snat) has 331 members, 319 elected for a nine year term from departemental electoral colleges consisting of the national and elected representatives of the department, one third of them renewed every three years, and 12 members by the Conseil Suprieur des Franais de l'tranger (High Council of French Citizens living abroad), a 150 members assembly elected by the citizens living abroad.

In addition, French citizens elect a variety of local governments instances. There also exist public elections for some non-political positions, such as those for the judges of courts administering workforce law (tribunaux de prud'hommes), elected by the workforce and the employers, or those for the judges administering cases of rural land leases. France does not have a full-fledged two-party system; that is, a system where, though many political parties exist, only two parties have a chance of getting elected to major positions. However, French politics have some tendencies of being a two-party system, where power alternates between relatively stable coalitions, each being led by a major party: on the left, the French Socialist Party, on the right, the UMP and its predecessors. See politics of France for more details.

Voters

The voters are the French citizens over the age of 18 registered on the electoral rolls. For municipal and European elections, over-age citizens of other European Union countries may decide to vote in France. Registration is not compulsory, but the absence of registration precludes the possibility of voting. Currently, all youths reaching the age of 18 are automatically registered. Citizens may register either in their place of residence, either in a place where they have been on the roll of taxpayers for local taxes for at least 5 years. A citizen may not be legally registered in more than one place. Citizens living abroad may register at the consulate responsible for the region in which they live. Only citizens legally registered as voters can run for public office. There exist exceptions to the above rules. Convicted criminals may be deprived of their civic rights, which include the right to vote, for a certain duration depending on the crime. In particular, elected officials who have abused public funds may be deprived of the right to run for national public office for as long as 10 years. The application of such rules in the case of certain politicians was controversial; see for instance the case of Alain Jupp.

Practical organization of the elections

For each level: presidential, legislative (National Assembly), senatorial, regional, "general" (for dpartement governments) or municipal (for city governments, communes), the election is held on the same day throughout the country, though partial elections held only in a small number of consistuencies can be held in certain circumstances. In general, only one election is held at a time. Elections are always held on Sundays. Polling starts in the morning and finishes at 6PM, 7PM or 8PM, typically depending on the size of the city (larger cities have longer polling hours). Polling stations are installed in public buildings, generally elementary schools. Voters enter the facility, take ballots and an envelope on a table (alternatively, they may bring ballots that they have received through the mail), isolate themselves in an isoloir in order to put the desired ballot inside the envelope, and come to the voting desk. Except in small villages, they have to show an identity document in order to vote; they also have to sign the electoral roll. Ballots are deposited in a transparent plastic box that must have been shown empty at the beginning of the vote. Assessors sent by the candidates, and other citizens, witness the event. These measures aim at rendering vote forgery more difficult. After the vote is finished, counting begins immediately. Volunteer voters assemble after the vote and count the votes by hands, with a specific procedure aimed at preventing unintentional and intentional miscounts. Since typically only one election is held on a single day, counting is quick, typically less than one hour in a typical voting precinct. The voting results are collected by the prfectures and final tallying is performed by the Ministry of the Interior. However, the elections for the president of the Republic and the parliament are overseen by the Constitutional Council, which has at its disposal, for the duration of the election, extra personnel (including judges from courts of first instance) to perform necessary checks. The Council may declare parts or total of an election to be invalid if the rules were not followed, in a manner that may have altered the result; it is the sole authority for proclaiming the final official results.