Most French elections are voted on in a two-round system.

Local, regional, parliamentary and presidential elections all have two rounds – the exception is the European elections, because they must conform to the voting patterns of the rest of Europe.

French Senate elections are another kettle of fish entirely.

Therefore in French domestic elections – including the current snap parliamentary elections – a range of candidates compete in the premier tour (first round) and voters can choose their favourite.

The highest-scoring candidates from the first round progress to the second round (deuxième tour) and voters go back to the polls to pick their favourite, or at any rate the one they dislike the least.

Votes are not carried forward from round one, so round two is a blank slate. At each round, voters can only choose one candidate. Most people vote in both rounds, but it’s possible to vote in only round one or only round two.

Outright winners

It can happen, though, that no second round takes place. If one candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote then they are the outright winner (although in parliamentary elections they must also have got 25 percent of the total voters on the electoral roll, a measure intended to guard against shock results in elections with very low turnouts).

This is relatively common in municipal or regional elections. In parliamentary elections, it happens in a handful of constituencies but is rare. It has never happened in a presidential election.

Second round candidates

Exactly who goes through to the second round varies slightly depending on the type of election.

In presidential elections it is simple – the two highest scorers go through.

In legislative and municipal elections the two highest scorers go through, plus anyone else who has achieved at least 12.5 percent of the vote. Second rounds are usually two-horse races but in legislative elections there can be second rounds with three or even four candidates.

In the second round it’s a simple case of the candidate who polls the most votes wins.

Between rounds

In presidential elections there are two weeks between the rounds, in other elections it is usually one week. Polling day for all types of election in France is always a Sunday – the theory being that most people are not required to work and therefore have time to cast their vote.

Usually the defeated parties in the first round will call on their supporters to back a certain second-round candidate – if a far-right candidate has made it through to the second round, you may hear calls to faire un barrage or activate the Front républicain. This refers to parties across the political spectrum agreeing to put aside their differences and vote for each other in order to block the far-right. 

Why does France do this?

The two-round system is an unusual one – only a handful of countries use it and many of those that do are former French colonies who inherited the system from France. 

France voted to implement a two-round majority system for presidential elections in a 1962 referendum – the model was applied for the first time in 1965 when Charles de Gaulle was re-elected.

Prior to that the French president was generally chosen by the parliament and other elected officials – the exception to this was during the Second Republic when Napoleon II was directly chosen by the electorate (male members of the public at that time) during the 1848 presidential election with 74.2 percent of the vote.

The main argument in favour of it is that it allows the greatest number of people to select a candidate that they are happy with – even if your preferred candidate got knocked out in the first round, you can still express a preference for the second-round candidates.

In one-round first-past-the-post systems, such as those used in the UK and US, a party can win an election without winning an absolute majority of votes. Two-round systems are considered by some to be more democratic because the winner ultimately has to win the support of more than half of voters.

It has been claimed that two-round voting gives greater political stability – although current events are challenging that theory.

It’s often said that people vote with their heart in round one, but their head in round two – picking the practical choice from the second-round candidates.

READ ALSO How did France end up with the two-round system – and should it be changed?