Elections in Great Britain and France - Research Paper Example

Elections in Great Britain and France Presidential elections and election for different governmental positions and ministries are held throughout the world. These elections inform individuals about the popularity of an individual and the popularity of a party. These elections even differentiate between voting patterns and several related issues. Although elections are held throughout the world, still there is ample amount of difference in how these elections are held and conducted. Certain nations depend on party system and others depend on individuals during elections. 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 majority 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 2007 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 of the France is the Union for a Popular Movement and the previous president of the France represented the party, the party is part of the right wing of France and enjoyed majority in the National Assembly (Bernard,2012). The governance of France is semi presidential in nature, this means that the right to make the final decisions are in the hands of the prime minister and the president. The politics of France is entirely based on the nation’s characteristics of economy, society and geography. The major percentage of the population is situated in the urban areas of France, the Northeastern areas are completely urban and several industries exist in these areas. General elections of Great Britain 2010 and Comparison with France The general elections or the elections for the selection of the prime Minister in UK took place during the year of 2010 and was held on the date of Thursday, 6th May, 2010. Elections held in UK are mostly held on a Thursday where as the elections in France take place on Sundays. The elections are held on the basis of first-past-the-post (FPTP) procedure, according to this system only one individual is assigned the position being contested and the person assigned through this system has to gain the majority number of votes. No party that was running for the seat of Prime Minister was able to secure full majority. To secure full majority, a candidate of a party needs to occupy 50% plus one extra seat. But no party or their candidate was able to fulfill the requirement to gain majority. The second most number of seats was secured by Labor party, the first most seats were secured by Conservative party and the candidate of the Liberal Democratic Party secured the third most seats. Due to failure to gain majority of the seats, a coalition was created. Such coalitions are not created within France because in France the candidate or the party holding the most number of seats is announced as the winner of the election and is assigned the position. Neither UK’s system is similar to french election system in which if majority seats are not won by one candidate or one party, then a second round of elections take place. The general elections happen to be the second elections since World War II where no single party was able to secure majority of the seats. This was the first time when a coalition government was created due to the results of an election. The turnaround experienced by the general elections during 2010 was 65.1% which was 5% higher than the turn around of the previous elections (The Guardian, 2012). This turnaround rate is still lower than the turnaround rate of presidential elections held in 2012 which was 82%. The turn around of France is even higher than the turnaround of UK because France holds election on Sundays which is a holiday and more people can participate, where as UK holds elections on Thursday which is a weekday. Another major reason due to which the number of voter turnaround is lower in UK than in France is that voters in France are registered automatically as soon as they turn 18 and in Great Britain voters need to get themselves registered as voters before the lections. The election procedure of France is such that it attracts more voters. For example: When the elections enter the second round, the elections become more interesting due to which voters are attracted to vote. This time similar reason might have been experienced by UK because no one particular party was able to secure highest majority of the seats needed to win. The total seats occupied by Conservative party were 306, Labor party secured 258 seats and Liberal Democratic Party secured 57 seats. The division of percentage of votes between these three parties was such that the Conservative party was able to secure 10,698,394 votes; Labor party was able to secure 8,609,527 votes and the Liberal Democratic Party Secured 6,836,824. During the elections of 2010, Labor party lost a lot of its seats; it lost a total of 91 seats, where as the Conservative party won an additional 97 seats which were not under their belt during the elections of 2005 (Schofield 490). The Liberal Democratic Party even lost 5 seats that it had secured during the 2005 elections. The power structure between the political environments of both the nations is quite different. In UK the leading position of decision making is held by the Queen, the next powerful personality within the government is Prime Minister. In case of France the decision making power is shared by the prime Minister and the President. The conservative secured the most number of seats in the region of England; the Labor party secured the most number of seats in Wales. After the voting session was completed and it was figured out that no one single party will be able to form the government. The three parties decided to debate with each other to form a coalition government. IT seemed as if a successful coalition government will be formed between the Liberal and the conservative parties and during these expectations, Gordon Brown resigned form his post Prime Minister and even resigned from the position of leader from the Labor Party. Due to this the Queen accepted and finally selected the Conservative party’s leader David Cameron as the new prime minister and David Cameron decided to form a coalition government with the Liberal Democratic Party and assigned the position of Liberal Democrat to Nick Clegg (Sanders 20). Conclusion Both UK and France have differences in voting system and voting procedures. Due to these differences, the number of votes casted in UK is lower than the number of votes casted in France. The power structure of UK is quite different from the power structure of France and the people living in UK are not quite satisfied with the mayor system due to which they might not have opted to vote. The number of votes casted in the presidential elections of 2012 was 82% of the registered voters and in UK it was 65% of the registered voters. This difference is caused due to the reason of voting, the day of voting and difference between the voter structures. The end result of the 2012 elections of France was that one president was selected even though there was not a huge difference between the percentages of votes secured by those running for the presidential elections. In case of UK the result was that a coalition government was formed between the Liberals and the Conservative party. Works Cited Bernard, Bruno . " France's UMP party must sort out Sarkozy's successor, fast | Bruno Bernard | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk ." Latest US news, world news, sport and comment from the Guardian | guardiannews.com | The Guardian . N.p., 19 Nov. 2012. Web. 6 Dec. 2012. . Brooke, Anna. MTV France. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2007. Print. Furlong, A, and F Cartmel. "Social Change and Political Engagement Among Young People: Generation and the 2009/2010 British Election Survey." Parliamentary Affairs. 65.1 (2012): 13-28. Print. General election 2010: Bookies report 'unprecedented' turnaround in betting | Haroon Siddique | Politics | guardian.co.uk ." 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