Presidential elections since 1958
There have been eleven presidential elections in France since the establishment of the Fifth Republic in 1958.
Originally the president was elected by the Collège des Notables (an assembly of "notable electors") that included around 80,000 county and city/town councillors (who had been elected locally).
Following constitutional reform in November 1962 (the constitutional Act of 6 November), pushed by President de Gaulle, the president has been directly elected by the people of France in a two-round election.
Until a 24 September 2000 constitutional referendum, the president had been elected for a seven-year term since 1974. With the referendum being successful, the term was reduced to five years. Therefore, once the winner of the 2002 election, Jacques Chirac, took office as president, the next election was scheduled for 2007 rather than 2009.
Currently, the President of the French Republic is elected to a five-year term in a two-round election under Article 7 of the Constitution: if no candidate secures an absolute majority (including blank and void ballots) of votes in the first round, a second round is held two weeks later between the two candidates who received the most votes. Since 1965, when the current (direct) election system was introduced, every election has gone to a second round.
The latest election was in 2022. The first round was held on 10 April 2022, the second on 24 April.
References.
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