Indirect Senate elections were held for 114 of the 343 seats in the French
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the e ...
on 21 September 2008. With this election, the number of senators was increased from 331 to 343;
Saint Barthélemy
Saint Barthélemy (french: Saint-Barthélemy, ), officially the Collectivité territoriale de Saint-Barthélemy, is an overseas collectivity of France in the Caribbean. It is often abbreviated to St. Barth in French, and St. Barts in Englis ...
and
Saint Martin Saint Martin may refer to:
People
* Saint Martin of Tours (c. 316–397), Bishop of Tours, France
* Saint Martin of Braga (c. 520–580), archbishop of Bracara Augusta in Gallaecia (now Braga in Portugal)
* Pope Martin I (598–655)
* Saint Mart ...
elected two senators each for the first time. Furthermore, this election was the last to be held under the old system: prior to this election, senators were elected in three classes for nine-year terms. Under the new system instituted in 2011, senators are elected for six-year terms in two classes.
New seats
Twelve new seats were filled in this election. They were divided in the following way: 1 new Senator each for the Ain,
Alpes-Maritimes
Alpes-Maritimes (; oc, Aups Maritims; it, Alpi Marittime, "Maritime Alps") is a Departments of France, department of France located in the country's southeast corner, on the France–Italy border, Italian border and Mediterranean Sea, Mediter ...
,
Bouches-du-Rhône
Bouches-du-Rhône ( , , ; oc, Bocas de Ròse ; "Mouths of the Rhône") is a department in Southern France. It borders Vaucluse to the north, Gard to the west and Var to the east. The Mediterranean Sea lies to the south. Its prefecture and l ...
,
Drôme
Drôme (; Occitan: ''Droma''; Arpitan: ''Drôma'') is the southernmost department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France. Named after the river Drôme, it had a population of 516,762 as of 2019.
,
Eure-et-Loir
Eure-et-Loir (, locally: ) is a French department, named after the Eure and Loir rivers. It is located in the region of Centre-Val de Loire. In 2019, Eure-et-Loir had a population of 431,575.Haute-Garonne
Haute-Garonne (; oc, Nauta Garona, ; en, Upper Garonne) is a department in the Occitanie region of Southwestern France. Named after the river Garonne, which flows through the department. Its prefecture and main city is Toulouse, the country' ...
,
Gironde
Gironde ( US usually, , ; oc, Gironda, ) is the largest department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of Southwestern France. Named after the Gironde estuary, a major waterway, its prefecture is Bordeaux. In 2019, it had a population of 1, ...
,
Hérault
Hérault (; oc, Erau, ) is a department of the region of Occitania, Southern France. Named after the Hérault River, its prefecture is Montpellier. It had a population of 1,175,623 in 2019.Guyane''départements'' and one in
French Polynesia
)Territorial motto: ( en, "Great Tahiti of the Golden Haze")
, anthem =
, song_type = Regional anthem
, song = "Ia Ora 'O Tahiti Nui"
, image_map = French Polynesia on the globe (French Polynesia centered).svg
, map_alt = Location of French ...
.
The election marked the first time that French Polynesia had two seats in the Senate instead of just one. The
President of French Polynesia
, flag =
, flagsize =
, flagcaption =
, insignia = Coat of arms of French Polynesia.svg
, insigniasize =
, insigniacaption = Coat of arms of French ...
Gaston Tong Sang
Gaston Tong Sang (born August 7, 1949 in Bora Bora) is a French politician and is the former President of French Polynesia. He served terms as President of French Polynesia from November 2009 until April 2011, from April 2008 until February 2009 ...
and another member of his coalition,
Béatrice Vernaudon
Béatrice Vernaudon (born 27 October 1953, Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia) French Politician. Béatrice Vernaudon-Coppenrath is a Knight of the Legion of Honor.
Life
She was elected a deputy to the National Assembly of France on 16 June 200 ...
, a former member of the French National Assembly who lost her seat in June 2007, contested the seats. Former French Polynesian President
Gaston Flosse
Gaston Flosse (born 24 June 1931) is a French politician who has been President of French Polynesia on five separate occasions. He is currently a member of the Senate of France and has been a French junior minister under Jacques Chirac. He receiv ...
Richard Tuheiava
Richard Ari'ihau Tuheiava (born 28 February 1974) is a French Polynesian lawyer and politician. He represented French Polynesia in the Senate of France from 2008 to 2014, sitting with the Socialist Party. He is now a Member of the Assembly of Fre ...
For the 114 seats up for election, the electoral college was composed of 50,720 elected officials (49,602 in metropolitan France). Of these, 48,453 were local councillors, 178 were
MPs
MPS, M.P.S., MPs, or mps may refer to:
Science and technology
* Mucopolysaccharidosis, genetic lysosomal storage disorder
* Mononuclear phagocyte system, cells in mammalian biology
* Myofascial pain syndrome
* Metallopanstimulin
* Potassium perox ...
, 765 were regional councillors and 1,504 were general councillors.
Election
*Departments with 1 to 3 senators:
Two-round system
The two-round system (TRS), also known as runoff voting, second ballot, or ballotage, is a voting method used to elect a single candidate, where voters cast a single vote for their preferred candidate. It generally ensures a majoritarian res ...
Panachage
Panachage (, from French meaning "blend, mixture") is the name given to a procedure provided for in several open-list variants of the party-list proportional representation system. It gives voters more than one vote in the same ballot and allows ...
2004
2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO).
Events January
* January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...
Union for a Popular Movement
The Union for a Popular Movement (french: link=no, Union pour un mouvement populaire, ; UMP, ) was a centre-right political party in France that was one of the two major contemporary political parties in France along with the centre-left Soci ...
Socialist Party
Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...
Communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...
Europe Écologie–The Greens
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
European Democratic and Social Rally
The European Democratic and Social Rally group (french: groupe du Rassemblement démocratique et social européen, abbreviated RDSE), formerly the Democratic and European Rally group (french: groupe du Rassemblement démocratique et européen), is ...
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the e ...
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing ...