Politics a la Francaise

This is a topic I am still studying to understand it. It is rather different than American elections which seem to go on forever.

In France, the first round is collecting enough signatures from the candidate's respective party members, meaning the mayors and counsel members etc. to qualify to be on the primary ballot. I suppose this is not unlike the American primary system where only the most involved members vote in the primaries.

In France, once the candidate meets this qualification, by the deadline, there is only three months from the deadline to the first round of voting. If a candidate does not achieve more than 50% of the vote, one month later is the run-off.

This time around, it is looking likely that Sarkozy will face a run-off with Francois Hollande, the socialist candidate. Thus, Sarkozy is trying to court the conservative, Nationalist vote from Marie Le Pen, so he can squeak through. Sarkozy is particularly disliked in France, but he may win anyway.

Fascinating, politics a la Francaise.