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

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

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.

External links

• Complete first round results