On April 22 and May 6, 2012, more than 37 million French
citizens went to the polls to select the next president of the
Fifth Republic. Since December 21, 1958, French voters have
elected seven presidents, and this most recent contest featured
a runoff between the incumbent President, Nicolas Sarkozy (UMP),
elected in 2007 over Socialist Party candidate, Ségolène Royal,
and current Socialist Party leader, Francois Hollande, who was
nominated at the Socialist primaries in October, 2011 with 56.7%
of Socialists’ votes. French presidential elections have
involved such runoffs because, since 1962, French presidents
have been elected directly by popular vote in a two-round
majority runoff system. This set of electoral rules guarantees
that whoever occupies L’Elysée will have obtained a majority of
the popular vote, because if no presidential candidate emerges
with a majority on the first ballot, a second round of voting is
held between the top two vote getters. On the other hand, this
electoral system also structu