What are the basic rules of French elections?

What are the basic rules that French elections need to abide by?

1. Who is eligible to vote?

To be able to vote in the election, you only need to be a French citizen above 18 and have civil and political rights (some prisoners are not allowed to vote in France as an extra punishment for their crimes). Unlike Australia and Brazil, voting in French general elections is not mandatory.

French voters must register before 2065438+2007 10/0. Foreigners who have just turned 18 and obtained French nationality, and those who have retired from civil service positions or returned from military deployment operations can vote after the deadline.

French citizens living abroad can also vote. However, for fear of interference in voting, these voters can no longer use electronic voting, but vote by mail.

2. Who can be the presidential candidate?

Anyone can be a presidential candidate, as long as they can get the signatures of 500 supporters in the three weeks before March 20 17. These signatures must be distributed in at least 30 different departments, and each department has no more than 50 signatures.

Now, the official rules have become more complicated. After all, this is France.

3. How much can a candidate spend for the election?

During the first "official" campaign, which started on April 7, 2065438, candidates can go to polling stations to canvass votes in order to win the first round of voting.

However, France still has restrictions on the degree of "extravagance and waste" of candidates in the election campaign. In order to help average the campaign scope among French political parties, the legal campaign expenses should not exceed a certain threshold. The cost of the first round does not exceed 6.5438+0.68 million euros, and the cost of the second round does not exceed 22.5 million euros.

4. How do candidates get campaign funds?

In the spirit of averaging every candidate's chances and minimizing the influence of donors, French presidential candidates should compensate some campaign costs.

Candidates who won more than 5% of the votes in the first round of elections will be reimbursed 47.5% of the campaign expenses, while candidates who did not win so many votes only need to be reimbursed 4.75%. However, this does not mean that French presidential candidates can spend their campaign budget on large luxury cars and spend money unscrupulously for the campaign. The state only reimburses the expenses of certain activities, such as TV and radio activities, printing and posting posters in official places.

5. What about private donors?

Most candidates' campaigns are usually privately funded, although each candidate is only allowed to donate 4600 euros. Any donation exceeding 150 euros must be deposited into the official campaign account of the candidate by cheque, bank transfer or entrusted payment. Under such strict regulations, I hope there will be no problem with the source of funds for French candidates.

6. Are there any rules for the election?

French presidential candidates are allowed to participate in the election by printing posters and holding rallies. However, they must not take the form of TV advertisements that may be seen in the United States and other countries. During the five-week official campaign, each candidate is allowed to make several speeches to canvass for himself, but he must follow certain rules and time.

7. What rules must the media follow?

The time for TV and radio stations to broadcast candidates and the time for candidates to speak on radio stations will be strictly controlled by the French Audiovisual Committee.

In the earlier elections, France implemented a rule that every candidate had strict and equal time to speak on the radio. However, as of April 20 16, things have changed.

Now, during the distribution of candidates' names and the start of official activities, candidates will be given "fair" speaking time. This means that the time of their live broadcast will be determined by the support rate in the last election and opinion polls.

However, as long as the official campaign begins on April 10, the time for candidates to speak on TV and radio before the reform is equal. This means that Nathalie Arnaud, the little-known leader of the Workers' Struggle Party, can get the same speech time as Fillon and Macron as long as she gets the signatures of 500 supporters. The latter two candidates took the lead in the election.

If the French media announce the final results before 8 pm on election day, it will be in big trouble, although reporters usually know who may be the final winner at 7 pm.

8. What are the rules of opinion polls?

The voting rules of this year's French general election have changed. Now, any election vote must mention the percentage of voters who have not given the answer and give information on how to get the original result.

On the day of voting and the day before, France prohibited publishing, broadcasting or commenting on people's voting intentions.