Results from round one of voting in French local elections have set up several extremely close races in round two - which will be held on Sunday, March 22nd.
People may, therefore, want to make their vote heard in the second round.
The short answer is yes - you can vote in the second round on March 22nd even if you did not vote in the first round on March 15th.
In the French two-round system, each round of voting is treated independently.
Scores are not carried forward from round one, and any registered voter who is eligible to vote can take part in either round, regardless of whether they participated in the previous one.
To be eligible, a voter must be listed on the electoral rolls, be at least 18 years old, hold the appropriate nationality - which for municipal elections means being either a French citizen or an EU citizen who is resident in France - and have full civil and political rights.
If you didn't manage to get onto the electoral roll in time for round one, it is now unfortunately too late to register - you can check HERE whether you are on the electoral roll.
There is no legal requirement to vote in the first round in order to participate in the second. Abstaining in the first round does not prevent someone from voting later.
What matters is that the voter is properly registered and meets the eligibility requirements on election day. Turning up at the polling station with valid identification is enough to cast a ballot in either round.
READ ALSO: Explained: How France's two-round voting system works
Why does France have a two-round voting system?
France voted to implement a two-round majority system for presidential elections in a 1962 referendum - the model was applied for the first time in 1965 when Charles de Gaulle was re-elected.
Prior to that the French president was generally chosen by the parliament and other elected officials - the exception to this was during the Second Republic when Napoleon II was directly chosen by the electorate (male members of the public at that time) during the 1848 presidential election with 74.2 percent of the vote.
The main argument in favour of it is that it allows the greatest number of people to select a candidate that they are happy with - even if your preferred candidate got knocked out in the first round, you can still express a preference for the second-round candidates.
READ MORE: Why do French elections normally have two rounds?
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