The french legislative and presidential elections of 2007

Jacques Chirac UMP. Nicolas Sarkozy UMP. Presidential elections were held in France on 21 and 22 April to elect the successor to Jacques Chirac as president of France and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra for a five-year term. Sarkozy and Royal both represented a generational change. Both main candidates were born after World War II, [ 1 ] along with the first to have seen adulthood under the Fifth Republic , and the first not to have been in politics under Charles de Gaulle.

For the first time in a presidential election, electronic voting was introduced in some areas, having been authorised in They were introduced in only 82 of 36, voting districts , and were criticised by a number of people, both on the left and on the right.

1981 french legislative election

Using the three colours of the national flag blue, white, and red on electoral advertisements or partisan documentation was prohibited by electoral regulations. The requirements for being successfully nominated as a candidate are defined by the organic law of 6 November All candidates must be of French nationality and at least 23 years old the same requirement as for the candidates to the National Assembly.

Candidates must obtain signatures from elected officials mayors, members of Parliament, elected representatives supporting their candidacy. These signatures from elected officials informally known in French as parrainages , but legally known as "presentations" must be from at least 30 departments or overseas territories, and no more than 10 percent can be from any individual department.

France legislative

A presentation from an elected official does not imply the official supports the policies of the candidate, but rather that this official considers the candidate to be a serious candidate. The Constitutional Council published the official candidate list on 20 March The candidates were listed in a randomised order. This order was used for the official campaign: thus, posters for Olivier Besancenot were always be on the No.