Compare and Contrast Great Britain and France's most recent elections Research Paper

Compare and Contrast Great Britain and France's most recent elections - Research Paper Example This writing will focus upon the recent elections that took place in France as well as Great Britain. This writing will focus upon the differences between the election procedures, power structures, voting trends and voting systems experienced by the Great Britain and France. Body French Elections 2012 The presidential elections of 2012 that were held in France during the month of 2012 had a total of 10 individuals running for the president. These ten individuals included Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy. Sarkozy was the previous president of France and was running for the seat for the second time and according to the constitution of France; he was running for the second and the final time. After the first set of elections, both Sarkozy and Hollande stood as the leaders with 28% votes earned by Hollande and 27% votes earned by Sarkozy. This led to the second round in which both Hollande and Sarkozy took part, the end result of the second round was that both failed to gain majorit y and the difference between the percentage of votes for both the candidates was only 3%. Hollande took the lead by winning 51.64 votes and Sarkozy stood second by winning 48.36% votes (Thompson 131). This ended in the victory of Hollande and after this election followed the elections of Legislative level. The number of people who voted during the second round was much higher than the number of people who voted in the elections of the Great Britain. The average votes from all the territories was 82%, in which highest turnaround was experienced in the voters of Lot and lowest turnaround was experienced in the votes from the region of Saint-Martin. Sarkozy had a stronger hold in the southern and eastern regions of the nation and he was able to secure 60% of the total votes. Sarkozy even gained majority in areas that had voted in round one for Marine Le Pen but ample amount for support from Hollande was even available because of his proposal of Change. A two staged election process is used in France to select the president of the nation, in the first round different parties take part and one candidate from these parties is selected to run for the president’s office. Those who are elected as candidates have to attain 500 endorsements before being selected as a candidate. If the results of the first round do not select a majority, then a second round takes place in which two candidates who have the most number of votes run for the office and the individual who secures the majority of the votes in the second round, ends up securing the position. The voters list of France comprises of all French citizens who have reached the age of 18, these people include only those who are regarded as French Nationals and are registered to vote. There are several issues on which the voters of French presidential elections cast their vote. One of the major issues concerning the voters is the issue of unemployment which as been quite high in the recent past. According to the 2 007 statistics, the rate of unemployment in France was 9% (Brooke 757). The most lethal issue experienced by voters is the issue of immigration. It is said that the French community has become divided due to the issue of immigration. The numbers of immigrants that have been deported from France since 2002 have increased and have doubled. Another issue experienced by the voters of presidential elections is the issue of Law and order. The most popular party