Reader question: Do French voters have to vote in both rounds of the election?
The French two-round election system means that most voters head to the polls twice, but not always.
Question: Must a French voter have voted in the first round of the election in order to vote in the second round on April 24th?
In order to vote in French elections you need to fulfil various criteria; be a French citizen, over the age of 18 and be registered on the electoral roll. There is no requirement to have been born French - naturalised citizens can also vote and although the deadline to register to vote in the presidential elections has now passed, there is still time to register for the parliamentary elections in June.
Once registered, voters go to the polling station for the first round, and again two weeks later to pick between the final two candidates (in the case of the 2022 elections that's a choice between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen).
But do you have to vote in both?
No, voters are free to cast their ballots in only the first round or only the second round if they wish. In fact turnout levels are always different between the two rounds - sometimes radically so.
Voters who cast their ballot for a first-round candidate who is eliminated then have to decide which of the two surviving second-round candidates to back. If they don't like either of them it's common for people to either abstain or cast a vote blanc.
On the other hand, the prospect of a far-right candidate in the second round may inspire people who didn't vote in the first round to cast their ballot in the second.
The first round of voting in 2022 saw a low turnout of 73 percent - the lowest for a first round since 2002. Back then, the first round saw a turnout of 71 percent, but after the shock of far-right Jean-Marie Le Pen making it through to the second round, turnout in round two jumped to 79 percent.
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Question: Must a French voter have voted in the first round of the election in order to vote in the second round on April 24th?
In order to vote in French elections you need to fulfil various criteria; be a French citizen, over the age of 18 and be registered on the electoral roll. There is no requirement to have been born French - naturalised citizens can also vote and although the deadline to register to vote in the presidential elections has now passed, there is still time to register for the parliamentary elections in June.
Once registered, voters go to the polling station for the first round, and again two weeks later to pick between the final two candidates (in the case of the 2022 elections that's a choice between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen).
But do you have to vote in both?
No, voters are free to cast their ballots in only the first round or only the second round if they wish. In fact turnout levels are always different between the two rounds - sometimes radically so.
Voters who cast their ballot for a first-round candidate who is eliminated then have to decide which of the two surviving second-round candidates to back. If they don't like either of them it's common for people to either abstain or cast a vote blanc.
On the other hand, the prospect of a far-right candidate in the second round may inspire people who didn't vote in the first round to cast their ballot in the second.
The first round of voting in 2022 saw a low turnout of 73 percent - the lowest for a first round since 2002. Back then, the first round saw a turnout of 71 percent, but after the shock of far-right Jean-Marie Le Pen making it through to the second round, turnout in round two jumped to 79 percent.
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