2015 French departmental elections

Departmental elections to elect the membership of the Departmental Councils of France's 100 departments were held on 22 and 29 March 2015 (first and second round). In 2015 for the first time, the term "departmental elections" replaced "cantonal elections", and the term "Departmental Council" replaced "General Council".

Party affiliation of the Departmental Council Presidents after the elections

The Union for a Popular Movement won 27 new departments and lost one, resulting in it holding a majority in 67 Departmental Councils. 62 candidates were elected for the National Front nationwide but the party won no departments.

Electoral system
This article is part of a series on the
Politics of France
Republic
Executive
Legislature
Judiciary
Administrative divisions
Elections
Foreign relations
  • Ministry of Foreign and
    European Affairs
Related topics

Like the previous cantonal elections, the departmental elections used a two-round system similar to that employed in the country's legislative elections. One change was that the election adopted paired voting.

  • 2 councillors (a man and a woman) were elected from single-member constituencies (the new cantons adopted in 2014).
  • A pair securing the votes of at least 25% of the canton's registered voters and more than 50% of the total number of votes actually cast in the first round of voting would be thereby elected. If no candidate satisfies these conditions, then a second round of voting would be held one week later.
  • The two pairs who received the highest number of votes in the first round, plus any other candidate or candidates who received the votes of at least 12.5% of those registered to vote in the canton, would be eligible to stand in the second round.[1]
  • In the second round, the pair receiving the highest number of votes would be elected.

Neither the city of Paris, the Lyon Metropolis, nor Martinique and French Guiana took part in this election due to their particular statuses.

Opinion polls
Main article: Opinion polling for the French departmental elections, 2015

Results
Leading single party or grouping after the first round in Metropolitan France, broken down by department. Colour key:
  National Front
  Union for a Popular Movement
  Union of the Right
  Miscellaneous right
  Socialist Party
  Union of the Left
  Miscellaneous left
  No election
Party First round Second round Total seats
Votes % Seats Votes % Seats
Left Front (Front de Gauche) 962,394 4.72 1 266,896 1.44 7 19
Union of the Left (Union de la Gauche) [Socialist Party and its allies] 1,667,533 8,19 - 1,679,890 9,09 - -
Socialist Party (Parti socialiste) 2,708,427 13.30 24 2,967,883 16.06 925 954
Europe Écologie – Les Verts 412,729 2.03 0 29,888 0.16 35 35
Communist Party (Parti communiste français) 269,285 1.32 5 100,413 0.54 167 121
Miscellaneous left (Divers gauche) 1,383,318 6.79 27 828,537 4.48 376 403
Radical Party of the Left (Parti radical de gauche) 62,372 0.31 4 64 110 0.35 59 63
Left Party (Parti de gauche) 12,027 0.06 0 2,498 0.01 2 2
Union for a Popular Movement (Union pour un Mouvement Populaire) 1,339,412 6.57 74 1,596,391 8.64 1006 1080
Miscellaneous right (Divers droite) 1,386,466 6.81 115 1,279,623 6.92 784 899
Union of Democrats and Independents (Union des Démocrates Indépendants) 263,209 1.29 30 247,714 1.34 334 364
Union of the Right (Union de la Droite) [Union pour un Mouvement Populaire and its allies] 4,254,050 20.88 - 5,102,317 27.61 - -
National Front (Front national) 5,141,897 25.24 8 4 108 404 22.23 54 62
Others (Divers) 271,065 1.33 4 98,781 0.53 45 49
Democratic Movement (Mouvement démocrate) 72,410 0.36 1 48,038 0.26 47 48
Far-right (Extrême droite) 13,382 0.07 0 12,851 0.07 4 4
Totals 21,419,393 50.17 528 20,160,862 49.98
Turnout

References
  1. "How the French elections work". The Connexion. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.