{"id":329265,"date":"2017-06-18T15:00:33","date_gmt":"2017-06-18T15:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=329265"},"modified":"2017-06-18T15:00:33","modified_gmt":"2017-06-18T15:00:33","slug":"french-voter-turnout-falls-sharply-in-second-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=329265","title":{"rendered":"French voter turnout falls sharply in second round"},"content":{"rendered":"

Voter turnout in the second round of France’s parliamentary election is sharply down on the last vote five years ago, official statistics show.<\/p>\n

By midday on Sunday only 17.75% had cast a ballot, down from 21.41% at the same time in the 2012 election.<\/p>\n

The second-round vote is a run-off between the top candidates from last Sunday’s first round.<\/p>\n

President Emmanuel Macron is hoping to obtain a strong mandate in parliament to help him pursue his reform plans.<\/p>\n

His La R\u00e9publique en Marche (Republic on the Move or LREM) with its MoDem allies is expected to win most seats.<\/p>\n

Traditional parties are urging voters to back Mr Macron’s rivals to stop a monopolisation of power.<\/p>\n

President Macron formed his party just over a year ago, and half of its candidates have little or no political experience.<\/p>\n

They include a retired bullfighter, a Rwandan refugee and a mathematician.<\/p>\n

A party needs 289 seats to control the 577-seat National Assembly. LREM is predicted to win more than 400.<\/p>\n

What happened in part one?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the first round Mr Macron’s LREM and MoDem won 32.3% of the vote.<\/p>\n

The centre-right Republicans had 21.5%, while the far-right National Front (FN) had 13.2%, followed by the far-left La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) on just over 11%.<\/p>\n

The Socialists, previously France’s ruling party, and their allies won just 9.5%.<\/p>\n

However, the turnout was low, despite claims that President Macron had re-energised the voting public.<\/p>\n

Analysts said it reflected a sense of resignation among his opponents.<\/p>\n

\"Graphic<\/span><\/figure>\n

Who is in the second round?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Only four seats were settled in the first round.<\/p>\n

The second round will see the two top-placed contenders for each seat facing each other, along with any other candidate who won the support of at least 12.5% of registered voters in the district.<\/p>\n

\"Composite<\/span><\/figure>\n
Among the LREM candidates who will compete in the second round are Marie Sara, Herv\u00e9 Berville and C\u00e9dric Villani<\/figure>\n

Here are some of the key battles to look out for:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Ex-Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem could be turfed out of her Rh\u00f4ne seat by Bruno Bonnell from LREM<\/li>\n
  • National Front MP Gilbert Collard is neck and neck with ex-bullfighter and LREM candidate Marie Sara<\/li>\n
  • Manuel Valls, the unpopular Socialist ex-prime minister rejected as a candidate by both LREM and the Socialists, is tipped for victory in his Essonne seat<\/li>\n
  • Leading centre-right figure Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet has a real fight on her hands against LREM novice Gilles Le Gendre<\/li>\n
  • FN leader Marine Le Pen is likely to win in the Pas-de-Calais department of northern France where she is facing LREM novice Anne Roquet<\/li>\n
  • Far-left ex-presidential candidate Jean-Luc M\u00e9lenchon is expected to win his battle in Marseille against LREM first-timer, Corinne Versini<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    \"National<\/span><\/figure>\n

    What are the challenges for Macron?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Mr Macron, 39, defeated Marine Le Pen in the presidential run-off in May.<\/p>\n

    He needs a majority to push through the changes that he promised in his campaign, which include:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • Budget savings of \u20ac60bn (\u00a351bn; $65bn) in the next five years<\/li>\n
    • Cutting the number of public servants by 120,000<\/li>\n
    • Reforming the labour market and generous state pension schemes, bringing them into line with private schemes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      –<\/p>\n

      Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Voter turnout in the second round of France’s parliamentary election is sharply down on the last vote five years ago, official statistics show. By midday on Sunday only 17.75% had cast a ballot, down from 21.41% at the same time in the 2012 election. The second-round vote is a run-off between the top candidates from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[3],"class_list":["post-329265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international","tag-ghana-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=329265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=329265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=329265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=329265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}