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First round results:
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http://www.france24.com/en/20120422-france-hollande-sarkozy-second-round-presidential-runoff-le-penSarkozy and Hollande tune up for presidential run-off
By Joseph BAMAT the 22/04/2012 - 23:08
Incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist candidate François Hollande have made it to the second round of Frances presidential election. But the far right once again caused a stir by pooling almost a fifth of the vote.
The highly anticipated showdown between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist candidate François Hollande will indeed take place on May 6, after the left-wing challenger finished ahead of the incumbent in Sundays first round of voting. But it was the leader of the far-right National Front, Marine Le Pen, who stole the show on election day with a record score for her party.
According to partial results released by Frances Interior Ministry, Hollande secured around 28.5% of the vote, ahead of Sarkozy with 27% and Le Pen with 19%.
I am the candidate of unity, and that unity needs to be strong, Hollande pleaded during a post-election speech at his campaign headquarters in the central city of Tulles. Frances Socialists are hoping to return to the Elysée Palace for the first time in almost two decades.
Sarkozy, who has been criticized for waging a feeble campaign so far, was in a race against time to inject fresh momentum into his re-election drive, with opinion polls suggesting he will also finish second in the May 6 run-off.
An election day survey by the Ipsos polling firm predicted Hollande would beat Sarkozy by 54% to 46%.
Another Le Pen shocker
While Hollande's supporters were contemplating overall victory, and the president's camp were breathing a sigh of relief, the National Front was throwing the biggest party of the night.
The battle for France has only just begun nothing will be as before, Marine Le Pen told ecstatic supporters in her usually combative style. Her near-20% support was a historic high for her anti-immigration National Front party, even if it did not buy her a ticket into the second round.
In the 2002 presidential election, her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder and long-time leader of the National Front, shocked France by securing 16.8% support in the first round. His score that year was enough to get him into the second round, where he was trounced by former president Jacques Chirac.
While her name would not be on the run-off ballot, Marine Le Pens third-place finish on Sunday confirmed her position as the National Fronts new leader and as a major player on Frances political stage.
The Ipsos poll revealed that 48% of people who voted for the Marine Le Pen were between 25 and 44 years of age, challenging established ideas about the far-rights electorate and perhaps signalling an important shift in the partys makeup under Marine Le Pen.
The same study showed that Le Pen supporters said immigration and insecurity were their top concerns, whereas Sarkozy backers said the financial crisis was Frances most pressing problem.
It remained uncertain whether Le Pens strong showing would translate into second-round votes for the incumbent. Marine Le Pen said she would wait until May 1 to make an announcement to supporters about the second round. However, speaking to French television, Jean-Marie Le Pen said it was clear that the first-round results spelt disaster for Sarkozy.
Far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who some opinion surveys showed to be running neck and neck with Le Pen, disappointed supporters with 11.5% of votes. Centrist François Bayrou, who conquered third place in the 2007 presidential vote, finished in fifth with 8.5%, exit polls showed.
Green candidate Eva Joly ended election day with 2.3%, while the right-wing eurosceptic Nicolas Dupont-Aignan got 1.8%. Far-left candidates Phillippe Poutou and Nathalie Arthaud got 1.2% and 0.7% respectively, and off-beat candidate Jacques Cheminade won just 0.2%.
Left rallies behind Hollande
Candidates on the left quickly expressed their support for François Hollande in the second round. Green candidate Eva Joly went on the record as saying she backed Hollandes presidential bid, echoing other prominent Greens.
Melenchon told supporters rallied on Place de Stalingrad in the north-east of Paris that their vote would be key in the final outcome, urging them to come together on May 6 to beat Sarkozy. Phillippe Poutou, the candidate of the New Anti-capitalist Party, also called on voters to kick out Sarkozy from office.
Marie-George Buffet, a past presidential candidate for Frances Communist Party and an ally of Melenchon, delivered a clearer endorsement for the Socialist candidate. All men and women on the left need to mobilize and unify around François Hollande because the danger of the right and far-right remains, she said.
Accordign to an Ipsos survey, 86% of people who voted for Melenchon in the first round said they would probably vote for François Hollande in the second round. That compared with 60% of Le Pen supporters who said they would cast a run-off ballot for Nicolas Sarkozy.
François Bayrou said he would consult both Hollande and Sarkozy before deciding who he would endorse for the May 6 vote. According to the Ipsos poll, 33% of Bayrous supporters said they were leaning towards Hollande, while 32% said they favoured Sarkozy.
Allies of the incumbent president said Sundays results proved that opinion polls could not be trusted and that the field remained open for Sarkozy. Nothing is certain, said French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe after results.
What does and can the President do:
The President of the French Republic (French: Président de la République française) colloquially referred to in English as the President of France, is France's elected Head of State.
The French Fifth Republic is a semi-presidential system. Unlike many other European presidents, the office of the French President is quite powerful. Although it is the Prime Minister of France and parliament that oversee much of the nation's actual lawmaking, the French President wields significant influence. The president holds the nation's most senior office, and outranks all other politicians.
The president's greatest power is their ability to choose the Prime Minister. However, since only the French National Assembly has the power to dismiss the Prime Minister's government, the president is forced to name a prime minister who can command the support of a majority in the assembly.
When the majority of the Assembly has opposite political views to that of the president, this leads to political cohabitation. In that case, the president's power is diminished, since much of the de facto power relies on a supportive prime minister and National Assembly, and is not directly attributed to the post of president.
When the majority of the Assembly sides with him, the President can take a more active role and may, in effect, direct government policy. The prime minister is then the personal choice of the President, and can be easily replaced if the administration becomes unpopular. This device has been used in recent years by both François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac.
Since 2002, the mandate of the president and the Assembly are both 5 years and the two elections are close to each other. Therefore, the likelihood of a "cohabitation" is lower.
Among the powers of the government:
The president promulgates laws.
The president has a very limited form of suspensive veto: when presented with a law, he or she can request another reading of it by Parliament, but only once per law.
The president may also refer the law for review to the Constitutional Council prior to promulgation.
The president may dissolve the French National Assembly
The president may refer treaties or certain types of laws to popular referendum, within certain conditions, among them the agreement of the Prime minister or the parliament.
The president is the Commander-in-Chief (CINC) of the armies.
The president may order the use of nuclear weapons.
The president names the Prime minister but he cannot dismiss him. He names and dismisses the other ministers, with the agreement of the Prime minister.
The president names most officials (with the assent of the cabinet).
The president names certain members of the Constitutional Council.
The president receives foreign ambassadors.
The president may grant a pardon (but not an amnesty) to convicted criminals; the president can also lessen or suppress criminal sentences. This was of crucial importance when France still operated the death penalty: criminals sentenced to death would generally request that the president commute their sentence to life imprisonment.
All decisions of the president must be countersigned by the Prime minister, except dissolving the French National Assembly.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_France)
How the French presidential election works
France is gearing up to vote in the ninth presidential election since the fifth republic was introduced in 1959. The first round takes place on 22 April. If there is no clear winner, there will be a second run-off round on 6 May. RFI explains the rules and regulations governing the vote.
Who can be president?
A French president can serve for a maximum of two five-year terms (changed from seven-year terms by former president Jacques Chirac.)
Candidates must be French citizens. In order to stand they must first gather 500 signatures from elected officials (eg.mayors). Those who sign are sometimes called sponsors, though their signatures don't necessarily imply support for a candidate's ideas. The names of the sponsors are published shortly before the election date so mayors are careful about giving their signatures. The rule is designed to limit the number of frivolous candidates.
Who can vote?
The president is directly elected by the French people, no electoral colleges as in US.
Voters must be French citizens aged 18 or over.
Voting is not compulsory.
How and when?
The election nearly always has two rounds. In theory, if any candidate wins an absolute majority (50 per cent of the vote plus at least one extra vote) he or she is immediately elected. In practice, this has never happened. Charles de Gaulle came the closest, winning 44 per cent in the first round in 1965.
Usually the two candidates with the highest scores in round one, face each other in a second round, held 14 days later. The eliminated candidates often advise their voters who to back, among the two remaining hopefuls. A candidate who comes second in the first round could win the presidency if he has broader support in the second round.
Elections are always held on Sundays. Campaigns finish at midnight on the Friday before the vote.
Voting stations open at 8 am and close at 6 pm in small towns, 8 pm in cities.
Publication of results or estimates before 8 pm is illegal, but foreign radio, TV and internet sites now make estimates available before that time. For this reason, voting in French overseas constituencies in the Americas (eg. French Guiana, Martinique, Guadeloupe) as well as embassies and consulates there, now takes place on Saturdays in a special exemption.
http://www.english.rfi.fr/france/20120206-how-election-works
Results of the previous election (2007):
President before election: Jacques Chirac (UMP)
Second round:
Elected President: Nicolas Sarkozy (UMP) - 53.06% of the votes
Runner-up: Ségolène Royal (PS) - 46.94% of the votes
First round:
1) Nicolas Sarkozy (UMP) - 31.18%
2) Ségolène Royal (PS) - 25.87%
3) François Bayrou (UDF - Union for French Democracy - Union pour la démocratie française) - 18.57%
4) Jean-Marie Le Pen (FN - National Front - Front National) - 10.44%
5) Olivier Besancenot (LCR - Revolutionary Communist League - Ligue communiste révolutionnaire) - 4.08%
6 to 12) Philippe de Villiers (Movement for France - Mouvement pour la France), Marie-George Buffet (French Communist Party - Parti communiste français), Dominique Voynet (The Greens - Les Verts), Arlette Laguiller (Workers' Struggle - Lutte ouvrière), José Bové (independent), Frédéric Nihous (Hunting, Fishing, Nature, Tradition - Chasse, pêche, nature, traditions), Gérard Schivardi (Worker's Party)
