After an express campaign, it’s D-Day. Polling stations opened in mainland France and Corsica, Sunday June 30, for the first round of early legislative elections. Marine Tondelier, the leader of the Ecologists, voted in Hénin-Beaumont (Pas-de-Calais), at 8 a.m. Outgoing deputies Raquel Garrido and Alexis Corbière voted in Bagnolet (Seine-Saint-Denis). Edouard Philippe, president of the Horizons party, showed up at the polling station around 8:20 a.m., in his stronghold of Le Havre (Seine-Maritime).
The political forces have had three weeks to campaign, after Emmanuel Macron announced the dissolution of the National Assembly on June 9, the evening of the European elections. The second round will be held in a week, on July 7. Follow our live feed.
Nearly 49.5 million French people registered on the electoral lists. This figure was communicated at the end of May by the INSEE. Voters vote in 577 electoral districts, to elect as many deputies. The future elected representatives will sit in the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament. The participation and abstention figures will be particularly scrutinized. In the days preceding the vote, more than a million proxies were registered.
Participation on the rise overseas. In Guadeloupe, the final participation rate for the first round of the legislative elections is 33.56%, announces the prefecture. It was 25.31% in 2022. In Martinique, the participation rate at 5 p.m. (local time) reached 25.67%, according to the prefecture. In 2022, it was 15.1% at the same time, specifies Martinique la 1ère.
The second round will be held on Sunday, July 7. LThe two leading candidates in the first round, as well as those who obtained a number of votes equal to at least 12.5% of the number of registered voters (and not voters) will face each other in a week. This means that more than two candidates can qualify for the second round. Some of them could also be elected this evening, provided they exceed the 50% vote mark and obtain the votes of at least 25% of those registered.
Results announced from 8 p.m. This time corresponds to the closing of the last polling station in France. Due to the time difference, voters residing in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, Saint-Barthélemy, Saint-Martin, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyana and French Polynesia voted on Saturday. This is also the case French voters abroad living on the American continent. Some voters from abroad were also able to vote online during the week, as in 2022. In each of these constituencies, once the polls close, estimates will be able to be released before 8 p.m.
What majority in the National Assembly? To obtain an absolute majority in the hemicycle, a political force must win at least 289 seats. This was not the case for the National Assembly resulting from the 2022 legislative elections, forcing the government to rely on a relative majority.
