Cantonal elections to elect half the membership of the general councils of France's 100 departments were held on 9 and 16 March 2008. These elections coincided with the municipal elections, in which the left did well.
Electoral system The cantonal elections use a two-round system similar to that employed in the country's legislative elections. Councillors are elected from single-member constituencies (the cantons). A candidate 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 is thereby elected. If no candidate satisfies these conditions, then a second round of voting is held one week later. Entitled to present themselves in the second round are the two candidates who received the highest number of votes in the first round, plus any other candidate or candidates who received the votes of at least 10% of those registered to vote in the canton. In the second round, the candidate receiving the highest number of votes is elected.
Change in control
From right to left
Ain (PS) Allier (PCF) Corrèze (PS) Indre-et-Loire (PS) Lot-et-Garonne (PS) Deux-Sèvres (PS) Somme (PS) Val-d'Oise (PS)
From PCF to PS
Seine-Saint-Denis
From PRG to PS
Hautes-Pyrénées
From centre to right
Pyrénées-Atlantiques (UMP)
From left to right
Hautes-Alpes (UMP) Mayotte (UMP)
From UMP to NC
Côte-d'Or
From UMP to DVD
Jura
Past general council presidents
François Hollande, first secretary of the PS elected in Corrèze Arnaud Montebourg, PS deputy elected in Saône-et-Loire Hervé Gaymard, former UMP minister elected in Savoie Dominique Bussereau, former UMP minister elected in Charente-Maritime Claude Bartolone, PS deputy elected in Seine-Saint-Denis
Notable new councillors
Jean Sarkozy, son of President Nicolas Sarkozy, elected in Neuilly-Sud (Hauts-de-Seine) as the UMP candidate
National results
Party/AllianceDepartmentsVotes% (first round)Votes% (second round)PS 3,572,789 26.73% 2,415,348 35.11%UMP 3,158,400 23.63% 1,843,500 26.80%Miscellaneous Right 2,016,938 15.09% 1,035,770 15.06%PCF 2 1,172,378 8.77% 387,397 5.63%Miscellaneous Left 0 898,717 6.72% 506,403 7.36%FN 0 647,749 4.85% 11,232 0.16%MoDem 2 590,519 4.42% 202,439 2.94%Les Verts 0 558,612 4.18% 106,789 1.55%NC 2 265,318 1.99% 161,575 2.35%PRG 2 183,208 1.37% 100,861 1.47%Miscellaneous 0 129,925 0.97% 68,486 1%Regionalists 0 58,441 0.44% 14,785 0.21% Far-Left 0 50,047 0.37% 7,825 0.11%Ecologists 0 40,966 0.31% 17,466 0.25%MNR 0 19,918 0.15% 0 0.00%
Sources Ministry of the Interior results