the brand new options of the March voting system | EUROtoday

The municipal elections of March 15 and 22 are marked by important modifications to the voting technique. The first considerations villages with fewer than 1,000 inhabitants, or 71% of the 35,000 French municipalities, the place nearly 9 million French individuals dwell. The legislation of May 21, 2025 establishes a single municipal voting technique all through the nation.

Previously, when there have been lower than 1,000 inhabitants, a candidate might run alone or in a gaggle, the rely was completed in any case by candidate and there was no obligation of parity between women and men. It was the time of “mixing”: every voter might cross out names on the poll – a “pigeon shoot” which had its supporters in addition to its detractors – and substitute them with others. From 2026, regardless of the dimension of the municipality, the vote shall be proportional and on an equal listing, respecting a male-female alternation. Which is usually a problem in sparsely populated villages.

The reform has, in truth, precipitated some concern amongst elected officers and future candidates. Some worry that voters will proceed to vary the listing of candidates on the poll, inadvertently rendering their vote void. Many worry they will not discover sufficient girls to fill their listing. But, with greater than a month to go earlier than the deadline for submitting lists, suggestions from the sector exhibits that this has not at all times been an impediment.

Strengthening parity

It is troublesome to think about what the political penalties of the reform might be on the outcomes. These new guidelines might properly encourage the looks of latest lists the place, normally, there’s solely that of the outgoing mayor. The legislator is betting, in any case, on larger democratic vitality, a renewal of municipal elected officers, and on the strengthening of parity. THE municipal councils of municipalities with lower than 1,000 inhabitants at this time solely have 37.6% girls, in comparison with 48.5% in these that are already topic to the parity obligation.

The different large change within the 2026 municipal elections is the reform of the so-called “PLM” legislation (for Paris-Lyon-Marseille). Promulgated on August 11, 2025, it modifies that of 1982. Until now, the three largest cities within the nation, which convey collectively 2.1 million voters between them, benefited from an distinctive voting technique in comparison with different municipalities. With the identical poll, the voter designated those that sat on the district (or “sector”) council and the elected officers who additionally participated within the municipal council, which elected the mayor of the town.

From now on, there shall be two ballots (and even three in Lyon the place we vote instantly for the metropolis): one for the district (or “sector”) council and one for the town council, which can appoint the mayor. In the thoughts of the legislator, the difficulty is democratic: giving the identical electoral weight to every vote. Today, in truth, the “two-tier” system makes it attainable to acquire the vast majority of seats however not the vast majority of votes.