Departmental elections to elect the membership of the departmental councils of

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

's 100

departments Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military * Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

were held on 22 and 29 March 2015 (first and second round). In 2015 for the first time, the term "departmental elections" (French: ''élections départementales'') replaced "cantonal elections" (''élections cantonales''); as did the term "Departmental Council" (''conseil départemental''), replacing "General Council" (''conseil général''). The right-wing

Union for a Popular Movement The Union for a Popular Movement ( ; UMP ) was a Liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative List of political parties in France, political party in France, largely inspired by the Gaullism, Gaullist tradition. During its existence, the UMP was o ...

(UMP) won 27 new departments and lost one, resulting in it holding a majority in 67 departmental councils. 62 candidates were elected for the National Front (FN) nationwide although the party won no departments.

Electoral system

Like the previous cantonal elections, the departmental elections used a

two-round system The two-round system (TRS or 2RS), sometimes called ballotage, top-two runoff, or two-round plurality, is a single-winner electoral system which aims to elect a member who has support of the majority of voters. The two-round system involves one ...

similar to that employed in the country's legislative elections. One change was that the election adopted paired voting known as binomial voting. *2 councillors (a man and a woman) were elected from the reconfigured

cantons A canton is a type of administrative division of a country. In general, cantons are relatively small in terms of area and population when compared with other administrative divisions such as counties, departments, or provinces. Internationally, th ...

adopted in 2014. *A pair securing the votes of at least 25% of the canton's registered voters and more than 50% of the total number of votes actually cast in the first round of voting would be thereby elected. If no candidate satisfies these conditions, then a second round of voting would be held one week later. *The two pairs who received the highest number of votes in the first round, plus any other pair of candidates who received the votes of at least 12.5% of those registered to vote in the canton, would be eligible to stand in the second round. *In the second round, the pair receiving the highest number of votes would be elected. Neither the city of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, the

Lyon Metropolis The Metropolis of Lyon (, ), also known as Grand Lyon (, "Greater Lyon"), is a French territorial collectivity in the east-central region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. It is a directly-elected metropolitan authority, encompassing both the city of Ly ...

, nor

Martinique Martinique ( ; or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Carib language, Kariʼn ...

and

French Guiana French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...

took part in this election due to their particular statuses.

Opinion polls

Results

2015 French departmental elections - First round leading party

References

External links

Complete first round results
{{French local elections

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

2015 elections in France March 2015 in France