 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| French Presidential Election |
| Back to April, May '07: |
| The French held elections for a new president on April 22, and May 6, 2007 While France is a democracy like theU.S. it uses different procedures to elect their new president. First of all, all presidential hopefulls have to be born in France and be at least 23 years old. Next they have to receive signed petitions from 500 elected officials. The officials have to represent over 30 French departments or overseas collectivities with no more than 10% of the signatures coming from any one department. Once the presidential hopefulls receive their signed petitions, they become a candidate. These candidates are not allowed to air commercials on TV, but they are allowed a limited amount of public TV time. This year, 12 people became eligible to run for president. Voters for the presidential election must be at least 18 years old, and a French citizen registered on the electoral roles. Currently all people in France are automatically registered to vote when they turn 18. Amazingly, voter turnout in 2007 was over 84% for both rounds! |
| When it comes time for elections, France uses run off voting. On the Sunday of the first election, each person registered to vote can cast one vote for their favorite candidate. At the end of voting, if someone has an absolute majority (more than half) of the votes, they automatically become president! If not, a second round of voting ensues, but with only the top two candidates. This year, none of the 12 candidates got the absolute majority on April 22nd, so there was a second round of voting on May 6th, between Nicolas Sarkozy of the Union for a Popular Movement, and S�gol�ne Royal of the French Socialist Party. After all the votes were tallied, Nicolas Sarkozy had received 53.06% of the votes and S�gol�ne Royal had received 46.94% of the votes. On May 16, 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy officially became the 6th President of the French Fifth Republic when he met in a ceremony with outgoing president Jacques Chirac. Sarkozy will be president for the next 5 years in France. |
 |
 |
 |